The new prime minister will have to travel to Balmoral in Scotland for their audience with the Queen before formally taking over in Downing Street, the royal family has said in a statement.
Boris Johnson will also have to travel 500 miles from London to the monarch’s Aberdeenshire estate next Tuesday before he steps down as prime minister, to be succeeded by either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.
The result of the contest to become the new Conservative leader will be announced on Monday lunchtime, with the formalities for the winner – widely predicted to be Truss – taking place the next day.
Traditionally, the outgoing PM makes a brief statement outside No 10 before travelling to Buckingham Palace to present his resignation to the Queen. Their successor then sees the monarch, who invites them to form a government, before going to Downing Street, where they also speak.
However, the Queen is 96 and in increasingly frail health. She has spent the summer in Balmoral, and her lack of mobility means she finds travel difficult.
PA Media, which received the royal statement, said the Queen was experiencing an “episodic mobility issue” and while it might have been possible for go to London or Windsor Castle, it was decided to go for certainty, to avoid plans having to be amended at the last minute.
The two 1,000-mile round trips will significantly delay the chronology of the handover day, which usually happens in a relatively brief period.
Even during June’s platinum jubilee celebrations the Queen travelled to Buckingham Palace only twice, for her trooping the colour balcony appearance and the pageant, spending most of her time at Windsor Castle.
Under the UK’s system of constitutional monarchy, it is part of the Queen’s role to invite the leader of the biggest party in the Commons to form a government, and to accept the resignation of former PMs. Truss or Sunak will be the 15th prime minister she has received, starting with Winston Churchill.
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Guardian
