Due to health concerns, the Queen will not be able to go to London and will instead meet with Boris Johnson and the incoming prime minister at Balmoral in a historic first. The Prime Minister will pay a visit to Her Majesty at her Scottish residence before meeting with his successor.
The Queen will not be able to fly to London next Tuesday to meet Boris Johnson and his successor at Buckingham Palace, royal officials revealed today, adding that the politicians will instead visit her at Balmoral.
The 96-year-old monarch will meet with Mr. Johnson and either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak at her house in the Scottish Highlands, where she is spending her usual summer vacation.
Mr. Johnson and the next Conservative leader, who will be asked to form a government, will travel to Balmoral instead of Buckingham Palace, where the Queen typically conducts audiences with departing and arriving premiers.
The ceremony on September 6 will mark the first occasion in Her Majesty’s 70-year reign that a prime minister has officially resigned or been installed away from Buckingham Palace.
The choice to host the meeting in Scotland, as opposed to London or Windsor Castle, is reported to have been made in order to accommodate Mr. Johnson’s schedule. Royal aides wish to avoid having to make last-minute alternate preparations if the Queen experiences mobility concerns the following week.
King Edward VII was at Biarritz when Herbert Henry Asquith succeeded Henry Campbell-Bannerman, establishing a precedent for a prime minister being appointed away from Buckingham Palace more than a century ago.
Mr. Asquith, who was often referred to as HH, was required to travel to the beach town on the Basque coast of France in 1908 for the traditional “kissing-hands” ceremony with the queen.
The Queen is seen arriving at Balmoral Castle for her summer vacation on July 21, the last time she was shot.
The Queen greets newly-elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Buckingham Palace in July 2019 in London.
The Queen will not fly to London to meet with Mr. Johnson, Ms. Truss, or Mr. Sunak (pictured together on July 25)
The Queen will host Boris Johnson and the next prime minister at Balmoral Castle on Tuesday of next week.