Staff at Hampton Court Palace could face redundancy as London's most famous palaces face the impact of a £96 million shortfall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was revealed today.

Historic Royal Palaces has announced a voluntary redundancy scheme for staff at its historic and popular tourist spots including The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace because of the impact of closure during the lockdown.

The Tower of London normally attracts 2.8 million visitors a year, whilst Hampton Court Palace welcomed 914,992 visitors and Kensington Palace saw 550,162 visitors in 2018.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival was cancelled, the annual star-studded music festival, which was due to be this week has had to be postponed until 2021 and many money-making special events and parties hosted by the Palace have been postponed.

A decision to re-open the Palace gardens with strict social distance rules and restricted numbers is expected to be made later this week.

Historic Royal Palaces also runs the Banqueting House, in Whitehall, Kew Palace, in Kew Gardens and Hillsborough Castle, in Northern Ireland.

Chief Executive John Barnes said the decision is heartbreaking. He added:"We are privileged to be the guardians of six remarkable buildings, but the dedicated team who care for them are the spirit of our charity, and we are heartbroken that it has come to this.

"The closure of our six sites for three months has dealt a devastating blow to our finances, which we expect to continue for the rest of the financial year and to be compounded by the slow recovery of international tourism."

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He added: "We have taken every possible measure to secure our financial position, but we need to do more to survive in the long term. We simply have no choice but to reduce our payroll costs."

Mick Ainsley, the London region organiser for the GMB union, said:"While we are very mindful of the potential wider damage to our cultural industry, our members at HRP and their families are a far greater priority than the jewels and centuries-old bricks and mortar that they look after."