Following Boris Johnson’s resignation and the Queen’s request for her to form a cabinet, Liz Truss is now formally the 56th Prime Minister of Great Britain.
After successfully transferring power via the practise of “kissing hands,” the newly-installed prime minister left the monarch’s Balmoral estate in Scotland.
The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP was greeted in audience by the Queen today, and she was asked to establish a new government, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace. Upon being appointed as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, Ms. Truss accepted Her Majesty’s invitation and kissed her hands.
How the political drama day is developing
7.30 a.m.: In Downing Street, Boris Johnson made his farewell address as prime minister.
11.20 a.m.: Following an audience with Mr. Johnson and his wife Carrie, the Queen officially accepted his resignation.
Midday: Carrie and the previous prime minister departed Balmoral.
Liz Truss arrived in Balmoral at 12.30 p.m., where she visited the Queen and “kissed hands” with her to start a new government.
At 4 p.m., Liz Truss will deliver her first address as prime minister in Downing Street.
Ms. Truss quickly changed her status on her Twitter page.
The momentous occasion occurred soon after Mr. Johnson and his wife Carrie departed Balmoral after their last 40-minute visit with the Queen. The queen accepted, and Buckingham Palace said she was “gracefully delighted” to do so.
But Ms. Truss won’t have much time to enjoy herself since she must return to London to choose her Cabinet and devise strategies for reducing skyrocketing energy costs.
She is anticipated to establish a yearly maximum on family expenses of £2,500, maintaining the agreed £400 handout to cover further expenditures.
That would put the level just beyond the $1,900 present maximum and $1,000 below the amount it was scheduled to reach next month.
To see the Queen and receive the request to form a new government, Ms. Truss had taken a separate trip up to the north. The drama was increased when the jet carrying her and her husband, Hugh O’Leary, was forced to circle Aberdeen airport for around 20 minutes because of fog before landing.
Early this morning, Mr. Johnson left Downing Street for the last time after delivering a loud and traditional allusion-filled speech to the country.
The departing PM put on a brave face as he said, “This is it, guys,” while being observed by MPs, advisers, and sympathisers on the steps of No. 10.
After leaving via the fabled black door with his wife Carrie, he boasted that during a nearly three-year tenure, he “got Brexit done” and managed the “fastest vaccination rollout.”
He made it clear that whatever the financial hardship his “blackmail” on gas prices has caused, Britain must keep fighting Vladimir Putin’s aggressiveness in Ukraine.
Additionally, Mr. Johnson said: “The baton will be passed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race” in a jab at MPs for abruptly removing him. Midway through, the regulations were amended, but it is irrelevant anymore.
Laughter was also elicited by Mr. Johnson’s comparison of himself to a “booster rocket” that was being launched and his suggestion that he would stay out of harm’s way in a distant area of the Pacific Ocean.
I would only provide this administration with the utmost support, he said. It’s time for us to all rally behind Liz Truss because we will overcome this and emerge stronger.
The grin-sporting queen was seen shaking hands with the incoming premier Liz Truss at Balmoral as authority was passed.
Boris Johnson, the outgoing prime minister, and his wife Carrie attended the Queen’s last audience in Balmoral in Scotland.
I promise to back Liz Truss and the incoming administration wholeheartedly.
It’s time for politics to end, he urged his fellow Conservatives.
“The economy is having a hard time right now.” Families around the nation are having a difficult time right now, he added.
“We can and will overcome it, and we’ll emerge from it stronger.”
“However, I tell my fellow Conservatives that it’s time for politics to end, people.
“It’s time for all of us to support Liz Truss, her staff, and her programme so they can do what has to be done for the citizens of this nation.” Because it is what the nation’s citizens want. They need that. That’s what they deserve, too.
Before boarding a government vehicle with Carrie and their two kids, Mr. Johnson shook hands with members of the audience, which included current and past Cabinet ministers as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg and one of his sons.
Nadine Dorries, the ultra-loyal Culture Secretary, was present. Liz Truss begged her to remain, but she chose to go back to the back benches. There are rumours that she will be given a peerage.
“I am humbled that your successor has extended her faith in me by inviting me to stay as Secretary of State for DCMS,” she said in her resignation letter to departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
But she said: “I have personally told our soon-to-be prime minister that I would be better-placed to help her from outside of the Cabinet.” She added that “after considerable consideration” she had chosen to resign.
After Mr. Johnson’s farewell address, Tory MPs showered him with adulation, while Labour piled on with criticism.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, referred to Mr. Johnson as “the worst Prime Minister of the modern age” and said that in his resignation address, he enumerated “imaginary successes.”
Boris Johnson’s frantic effort to establish a legacy by standing outside Downing Street and touting fictitious accomplishments won’t deceive anybody, Mr. Lammy tweeted.
Goodbye to the worst prime minister in modern history.
Mr. Johnson hinted at his own future ambitions by saying he would follow in the footsteps of Cincinnatus, a Roman politician who fought against invasion before going back to his farm.
He compared himself to a booster rocket that has served its purpose when he declared in his farewell speech: “On the question of bouncing about in future jobs.
I’m going to softly re-enter the atmosphere at this point, then splash down invisibly in some far-off region of the Pacific.
“Like Cincinnatus, I’m getting back to my plough, and I’ll be giving this Government nothing but the utmost support,” he said.
As he seeks to maintain a low profile after leaving his position as prime minister, the former premier is most likely to forgo the Conservative Party conference this fall.
While his followers are still holding out hope that he would make a return, he intends to spend the next few weeks “serving his constituency” and supporting Liz Truss.
He would now be a “private person,” according to a Whitehall source, and would “probably not” attend his party’s annual autumn meeting in Birmingham next month.
According to reports, the departing prime minister will refrain from making prominent political comments but is expected to join the lucrative lecture circuit and publish his memoirs.
Will Walden, Mr. Johnson’s communications director when he served as mayor of London, predicted yesterday that he would “go off to earn a lot of money” on LBC radio.
As they were ready to depart Downing Street with their kids, Mr. Johnson’s wife Carrie gave a heartfelt homage to his stint as Prime Minister amid the rumours surrounding his future.
She shared a picture of herself, Mr. Johnson, and their kids Wilfred, 2, and Romy, 9, exiting No. 10 together for the last time on Instagram.
She was carrying Romy while donning a long white dress, and Wilfred, who was clutching his parents’ hands, kicked with his left leg.
Mrs. Johnson, 33, posted a brief blog entry about the picture that spoke about how pleased her kids were spending time at No. 10 and Chequers. The family will wait outside No. 10 today to listen to Mr. Johnson’s last remarks.
Additionally, Mr. Walden told ITV that only a “small circle of very, very dedicated Boris acolytes” would support Mr. Johnson staging a comeback, and that it would take a “weird combination of circumstances” for him to do so.
However, Lord Udny-Lister, Mr. Johnson’s former chief of staff at No. 10, said over the weekend that the Conservative MPs would later regret their decision to remove him and that he would be persuaded to compete for leader once again.
The departing PM put on a brave face as he spoke on the steps of No. 10 while being seen by MPs, advisers, and friends, adding, “This is it, guys.”
The Queen greeted Liz Truss with a walking stick today during an audience at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she extended an invitation to the recently elected Conservative Party leader to become prime minister.
The 96-year-old queen, who has struggled with mobility concerns, performed the important role from her retreat in Aberdeenshire for the first time rather than at Buckingham Palace during the historic audience. Additionally, Her Majesty hasn’t been photographed since she was spotted entering the estate on July 21 for her summer vacation.
Since last fall, the Queen has had sporadic mobility issues. Last week, it was decided to invite the outgoing and new prime ministers to travel the 1,000 miles round journey to meet the monarch.
‘The Queen met in audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and urged her to establish a new Administration,’ according to a statement from Buckingham Palace released at 1pm. Upon being appointed as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, Ms. Truss accepted Her Majesty’s invitation and kissed her hands.
Typically, “the Prime Minister kissed hands on appointment” is noted in the Court Circular. This is not really the case, and a handshake is more typical, as it was with Miss Truss today.
The gathering was held in Balmoral’s green-carpeted Drawing Room, which includes a matching green couch, a fabric chair with a leaf design, an open fireplace, and a number of old paintings with horses as the subject matter on the walls.
Following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, Miss Truss, 47, has become the third female prime minister in British history; all three held office during the Queen’s 70 years as monarch.
One day after being named the winner of the Tory leadership race, Miss Truss and her husband Hugh O’Leary sped into the Queen’s exclusive Scottish estate in a chauffeur-driven vehicle.