Queen Elizabeth II will break with tradition and appoint the UK’s new prime minister at her summer residence at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, not Buckingham Palace in London. The change will be due to mobility issues, which have already affected public appearances by the head of the monarchy.
A palace spokesperson said on Wednesday that the Queen would meet with current Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his as-yet-undefined successor on Sept. traditionally spends the summers.
Boris was pressured to resign in July after a series of secretaries left the government in protest at the administration’s increasingly numerous and frequent scandals.
The 96-year-old queen will have an audience with the UK’s new leader, either Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or former finance secretary Rishi Sunak, shortly after meeting Boris, the spokesperson said. voice.
The outcome of the contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party to succeed the outgoing premier will be announced a day earlier, on Monday (5). The most recent polls indicate that Truss is the favorite to be singled out by the legend’s coreligionists.
The appointment at Balmoral will give certainty to the new prime minister’s schedule and avoid last-minute changes if the queen has mobility issues, a Buckingham source told Reuters.
Queen Elizabeth, whose reign has had 14 prime ministers so far, has had to scale back her public appearances in recent months due to mobility issues. Last October she also spent a night in the hospital, for unspecified conditions.
The British monarch, as head of state, traditionally appoints the new prime minister after an audience at Buckingham Palace, part of the day’s spectacle, as television cameras and helicopters follow official cars into the palace.
