Queen Elizabeth II to receive new UK prime minister at Scottish retreat

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II AFP

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II will receive the new UK prime minister next week at her Scottish retreat, royal officials said on Wednesday, in the first ceremony away from London in her record-breaking reign.

Normally, the audience to accept the resignation of the outgoing prime minister and the so-called “kissing of the hands” ceremony with their replacement takes place at Buckingham Palace.

With the queen’s official London residence just a short drive from Downing Street, the handover is usually a swift affair.

But both Johnson and his replacement now face a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) round trip from the British capital to the Scottish Highlands.

It will be the first such ceremony outside London since 1952, when Winston Churchill met the new queen at Heathrow Airport after the death of her father, king George VI.

Johnson, on a visit to northwest England on Wednesday, said he was happy to cooperate. But he declined to comment further. “I don’t talk about my conservations with the queen, no prime minister ever does.”

The winner of the Conservative party leadership race between Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former finance minister Rishi Sunak is due to be announced on Monday.

The audiences with the queen are set to take place on Tuesday.

Truss is seen as the frontrunner to become the 15th prime minister to serve under the queen as head of state since she came to the throne.

Concern

The switch comes as the queen, 96, is on her traditional summer break in Balmoral and will revive concern about her health.

She has cut back on public engagements since October last year after an unscheduled overnight stay in hospital for an undisclosed condition.

Royal officials have blamed her absences on “episodic mobility problems” that have left her struggling to walk and stand, and forced to use a stick.

She was also hit by a bout of Covid earlier this year, that she said left her “exhausted”.

Buckingham Palace said the early decision to move the ceremony was designed to provide certainty for the prime minister’s diary.

“The fact officials can’t be sure the queen will be well enough to travel next week is yet another reminder of her advanced age and increasing frailty,” said the BBC’s former royal correspondent Peter Hunt.

The queen’s eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, deputised for her at the State Opening of Parliament and at the Trooping the Colour military parade earlier this year.

But Hunt said: “Appointing a new prime minister is not something that can easily be passed to Prince Charles, a king-in-waiting.”

Logistics

By car, Balmoral is more than nine hours away from London while travelling by train to the nearest big city, Aberdeen, takes at least seven hours.

A commercial flight from London Heathrow to Aberdeen takes just over 90 minutes, some 45 minutes by private jet or 2.5 hours by helicopter.

But private jet will likely be controversial, given their high levels of emissions — and the government’s commitments to hitting net zero.

Catherine Haddon, from the Institute of Government think-tank, described all transitions of power as “a sort of managed chaos”.

“This is just a new dimension,” she wrote on Twitter.

Conducting the formalities in Scotland will delay the outgoing Johnson’s departing speech and his successor’s first address to the nation as premier.

It will also delay the appointment of new ministers, with the process likely to stretch into Wednesday and Thursday, she wrote on Twitter.

The announcement creates a logistical headache not just for the politicians involved but the media covering the key constitutional event.

Broadcasters and photographers have already claimed their spots on gantries outside 10 Downing Street for Johnson’s departure and his successor’s arrival.

Downing Street is in the heart of bustling Westminster, but Balmoral Castle is set in 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of sprawling grouse moorlands, forest and farmland.

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