A contender for the head of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom said he believed some of the British public wanted a “scaled-down” monarchy and called for a referendum to end it.

Clive Lewis, 48, told a crowd in London on Friday, “I think a lot of people would like to see the monarch scaled down — there’s been a lot of talk. The monarchy is quite large, and there are a lot of people being paid by the public purse.”