Queen misses New Year's Day church service due to illness

Buckingham Palace says the monarch 'does not yet feel ready to attend' and is still 'recuperating'

The Queen in the Regency Room at Buckingham Palace for her 2016 Christmas message (Yui Mok/WPA Pool/Getty)

Queen Elizabeth will not attend a New Year’s Day church service because of a heavy cold.

Buckingham Palace said she did "not yet feel ready to attend” and was still “recuperating”.

The 90-year-old had delayed her departure for her rural estate in Norfolk because both she and her husband, Prince Philip, were suffering from colds.

Buckingham Palace confirmed to The Independent the Queen was “up and working” but “was not feeling 100 per cent”.

"The Queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold," a spokesperson said.

She did not attend the Christmas Day service at Sandringham due to the same illness.

Queen Elizabeth II is the world's longest-reigning living monarch but has announced she will step down as patron of a number of organisations and charities before her 91st birthday.

Other members of the Royal Family will become patrons of organisations including the Holocaust Day Memorial Trust, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Barnardo’s and Save the Children UK.