The best-known statement of when the monarch may refuse a prime minister’s request to dissolve Parliament is a letter to The Times. It was published on 2 May 1950 and signed “Senex.” Its author was Sir Alan Lascelles, the King’s private secretary.
The letter set three conditions: the existing Parliament was “still vital, viable, and capable of doing its job,” a general election would harm the national economy, and the sovereign could find another prime minister able to govern with a working majority.