CAMPAIGNERS have highlighted how Prince William is effectively paid more than £127,000 an hour by the taxpayer.

Statistics reported on by The Telegraph show the heir to the throne carried out just 172 engagements this year, which amounts to less than one month full-time equivalent work. His wife Princess Kate did even less at just 123.

Engagements last an average of an hour, though some are even shorter.

Campaign group Republic has said this means the UK effectively hands William more than £127,000 an hour while the Duchy of Cornwall – a public asset owned by the Crown  – will pay him an income of more than £22 million a year.

King Charles now receives a similar income from state asset the Duchy of Lancaster, which means he is costing taxpayers almost £52,000 an hour.

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Even Princess Anne, branded the hardest working royal of the year, only carried out the equivalent of two months work in 2023 with 457 engagements.

Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, said the figures are a disgrace and show why the monarchy must be ditched.

He said: "William likes to claim he works hard, adding one issue after another to his list of missions. First he'll tackle Middle East peace, then the environment and now homelessness. The truth is he barely works at all.

"It takes a deep sense of entitlement and a complete lack of serious scrutiny for William, Kate and the others to rake in multi-million pound fortunes, to enjoy the status and privileges of their positions while doing so little.

"Anne is trumpeted as the most hard-working of them all, yet she only managed the equivalent of two months of work in 2023.

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"This is one of many reasons to ditch the monarchy, so we can have an accountable, serious and hard-working head of state who is on a decent salary and not being lavished with an opulent lifestyle at the expense of the taxpayer."

It comes after it emerged in reports last month the King has directly profited from the deaths of thousands of English people whose money is being used to upgrade his property empire.

An investigation by The Guardian revealed the monarch was using the feudal concept of “bona vacantia” to hoover up the estates of people who died without a will or known next of kin.

The focus was on the Duchy of Lancaster, which has collected more than £60 million over the last 10 years, according to the newspaper.

The Duchy of Lancaster claimed that after costs, any profits from bona vacantia estates are passed on to charity.

But the Guardian reported internal documents show funds are being used to renovate properties which are owned by the King and rented out for profit.