Most of Labour’s frontbench have snubbed the royal engagement – with just a handful of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet bothering to publicly congratulate the couple.
The world rushed to tweet their delight when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement on Monday.
But just three out of Labour’s 33-strong shadow cabinet used social media to congratulate the royal couple on their pending nuptials.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson and Dawn Butler, the shadow minister for women and equalities, went online to voice their delight at the news.
Emily Thornberry congratulated the couple on during the weekly bout of Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Jeremy Corbyn and his close ally John McDonnell are both staunch republicans and have called for the abolition of the monarchy
And shadow education secretary Angela Rayner retweeted an article covering Ms Thornberry’s comments.
Mr Corbyn is a staunch republican who has called for the abolition of the monarchy in Britain.
And while he congratulated the young couple after news of the engagement broke while he was at a rally in Scotland, some of his supporters booed and heckled the news when the Labour leader was asked about it.
Mr Corbyn has repeatedly voiced his opposition to the monarchy, telling a reporter in June 2015: ‘I am basically somebody who would want us to be a a republic.’
His republican views stretch back many years, and in 2001 he told the BBC: ‘I think it’s time that we just moved on and said, when the current Queen completes her reign, wouldn’t that be an appropriate time to call it a day and have an elected head of state, either by both Houses of Parliament, or by popular vote.’
And many of his closest allies have also called for the monarchy to be axed.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, pictured outside Kensington Palace earlier this week, announced their engagement on Monday and will tie the knot in spring next year
Dawn Butler was among the few members of Labour’s shadow cabinet to tweet her congratulations to the royal couple
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, a leading member of the Labour moderates, congratulated the royal couple in a Facebook post
Diane Abbott, shadow home secretary once wrote: ‘We are not interested in reforming … the police, armed services, judiciary and monarchy.
‘We are about dismantling them and replacing them with our own machinery of class rule.’
While shadow chancellor John McDonnell has made no secret of his long-held republican views.
Prince Harry said he is ‘thrilled’ to be marrying Ms Markle and said he knew the Suits star was ‘the one’ from ‘the first day we met’.
He got down on one knee and popped the question to the US actress while they were having a cosy night in cooking roast chicken.
He presented her with an engagement ring which he designed himself and contains two diamonds from Princess Diana’s own personal collection set in a gold band.
The couple will marry in church in spring 2018 after the prince proposed in early November after getting permission from the Queen and Meghan’s parents.