A palace statement about postponing royal engagements due to the general election campaign has been described as “odd” and a “surprise” by a constitutional expert.

It comes as Sky News understands that meetings have been held today to discuss what engagements can continue and those that may have to be altered to be more appropriate during the next six weeks of heightened political sensitivity.

Talking about yesterday’s statement, Craig Prescott, a lecturer at Royal Holloway University and author of Modern Monarchy, said: “I thought it was odd. I don’t remember previous general elections having any statement like this.

“I would have imagined that in previous election periods, they might have taken a view of the proposed engagements and thought ‘maybe we don’t do that one and that one during the election, and we’ll push that back’.

“I think the surprise here is that they’ve made this statement and are acting so publicly about all this. I think, perhaps under the reign of Elizabeth II, all of this might have been done a bit more discreetly, and we just never noticed it really”.

King leaves Buckingham Palace

Shortly after Rishi Sunak announced that he had spoken to the King and was calling an election, Buckingham Palace said: “the Royal Family will – in accordance with normal procedure – postpone engagements that may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign.”

Palace sources are keen to stress there is no variance from what happened at previous elections and like all government departments the palace is now in a “pre-election period of sensitivity”.