POLICE Scotland spent more than £15 million on the Queen’s funeral last year, it has been revealed.
An investigation by NationalWorld found that UK emergency services spent at least £75m, according to the Home Office. They did not disclose what this was spent on.
SNP MP Anne McLaughlin said the revelation rendered her “speechless” and called this level of spending “immoral”.
It comes as the country prepares for the coronation of King Charles on May 6.
Police Scotland’s operational costs came to £15.4m alone according to a report from a Scottish Police Authority resources committee meeting.
After the Queen's death at Balmoral Castle, her coffin was transported to Edinburgh to lie in state at St Giles’ cathedral for 24 hours – which drew crowds of thousands.
The force said its costs had been covered in full by HM Treasury.
It is unclear, however, if Police Scotland’s expenditure is included in the Home Office’s £75m figure as policing is a devolved matter.
McLaughlin, the SNP MP for Glasgow North East, said she was “struggling to find the words” to respond to this news.
She added: “I understand we currently live in a system where we have a royal family and of course security is very important.
“But surely even the most ardent royalist must see that using £75m of taxpayers’ money on this especially at the height of a crisis where people are literally having to choose between heating and eating and children are going to school hungry, is immoral.
“King Charles is said to have private wealth of almost £2 billion. Let that sink in.
“We are being taken for fools. Worse, we are teaching our children that maintaining this one family is more important than their hunger or their wellbeing.”
Campaign group Our Republic also blasted the spending.
A spokesperson said: "The funeral, just like the coronation, is not a state occasion. In a normal modern state it would have been an opportunity for a family to privately grieve a loved one.
"Instead millions were spent parading a woman forced by the nature of her role into performing it until her death - for a public that is losing faith that her role even mattered.
"Now we face the morbid fact of a son elevated to an unaccountable seat of power by his mother's death, championed by a farsical demonstration of the extreme wealth he enjoys, yet still expects the public to pay to witness paraded before them.
"An obscene expense that easily could have been paid for on the proceeds of his inheritance tax alone... if he weren't exempt from it.
"If he weren't allowed to keep his billions untouched so he can wave his gilded pomp in the faces of the millions suffering from the cost of living crisis he could never experience or understand."
