PLANS TO ASK the UK public to pledge their allegiance to King Charles III during his coronation next week have been branded “offensive, tone deaf and a gesture that holds the people in contempt” by a pressure group.

Charles’s coronation will include the first Homage of the People – a modern addition to the ancient ceremony that will see people across the UK and overseas realms invited to swear an oath of allegiance to the king.

Graham Smith, a spokesman for Republic, which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy and its replacement with a directly elected head of state, said: “In a democracy it is the head of state who should be swearing allegiance to the people, not the other way around.

“This kind of nonsense should have died with Elizabeth I, not outlived Elizabeth II.”

“In swearing allegiance to Charles and his ‘heirs and successors’, people are being asked to swear allegiance to Prince Andrew too.

“This is clearly beyond the pale,” Smith added.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said it was hoped the significant change to the historic service will result in a “great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the King” from those watching on television, online or gathered in the open air at big screens.

It replaces the traditional Homage of Peers in which a long line of hereditary peers knelt and made a pledge to the monarch in person.

A spokesman for the Archbishop, the most senior bishop in the Church of England, said the homage is “very much an invitation rather than an expectation or request”.

He added: “It’s simply an opportunity offered by the Archbishop so that, unlike previous coronations, those who wish to join in with the words being spoken by the Abbey congregation could do so in a very simple way.

“For those who do want to take part, some will want to say all the words of the homage; some might just want to say ‘God Save The King’ at the end; others might just want it to be a moment of private reflection.”