Liz Truss is now the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after meeting Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Liz Truss is meeting the Queen at Balmoral Castle as part of the formal process for her to become the UK’s next prime minister.
The development indicates that Boris Johnson has met with the Queen and tendered his resignation letter earlier this morning.
The Queen has suffered from mobility issues which is why these meetings have happened at Balmoral Castle in Scotland instead of Buckingham Palace in London.
The first day in a new job
For most UK prime ministers, day one in the job starts with a trip to Buckingham Palace to be formally appointed by the Queen. For Liz Truss, it is making a 1,000-mile round trip to meet Her Majesty at Balmoral Castle. So how does the first day as prime minister tend to play out?
Kissing hands: Like other PMs, Truss will be appointed through a ceremony called “kissing hands” – though there’s no actual kissing involved. The Queen will invite her to form a government and become prime minister
Making a speech: Having been appointed, Truss will head to 10 Downing Street – her new workplace and new home. Here she will make her first prime ministerial speech to explain what she wants to do in government.
The nuclear codes: During the first few days, the prime minister will have to do something that will put everything else into perspective.
She will sit down and write letters to the commanders of the UK’s Trident submarines with instructions about whether to retaliate if the UK suffers a nuclear attack. The letters are only opened if contact with the UK is lost.
Queen ‘graciously’ accepts Johnson’s resignation – Buckingham Palace
Boris Johnson has met the Queen at Balmoral Castle a little earlier.
In a statement on the matter, Buckingham Palace said Johnson had an audience with the Queen and “tendered his resignation” as prime minister and First Lord of the Treasury, “which Her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept”.
The Queen is due to meet Liz Truss shortly to appoint her as the new prime minister.
Queen determined to carry out constitutional duty, despite health worries
This will be the first time in her reign that the Queen has held an audience with a new prime minister at Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace.
The change was prompted by concerns about the mobility of the 96-year-old monarch.
But it’s clear that despite her health worries, the Queen was determined to still carry out what is one of her most significant constitutional duties.
The shift from Buckingham Palace has happened for previous monarchs for other reasons.
Herbert Asquith had to go to Biarritz in France in 1908 because the pleasure-loving Edward VII was there on holiday.
The Balmoral setting for meeting Liz Truss is also less grandiose than the gilt and decoration of the palace.
Her audience is being held in the more homely Balmoral drawing room, with furniture in warm greens like those of the surrounding Scottish countryside.
The Queen and her new PM will meet in front of a painting of another monarch, Queen Victoria, and her faithful retainer, John Brown.
Victoria was the queen the last time a PM was appointed at Balmoral, when Lord Salisbury took over in 1885.
Truss arrives at Balmoral to meet the Queen
Liz Truss has arrived at Balmoral Castle to meet the Queen.
Liz Truss will become the Queen’s 15th prime minister on Tuesday.
Thirteen other prime ministers, from Sir Anthony Eden to Boris Johnson, have taken part in the “kissing of hands” ceremony.
One more, Winston Churchill, was already in office when she ascended the throne.
Despite the name, there’s no actual kiss involved. It’s actually just a handshake.
Twelve of the Queen’s prime ministers have been men.
Truss is the third woman. Eleven have been Conservatives. Only four – Wilson, Callaghan, Blair and Brown – have represented the Labour Party.
Boris Johnson resigns
The outgoing prime minister has now spoken to the Queen to tender his resignation. But Liz Truss is yet to arrive at Balmoral for her own appointment.
The handover of power is choreographed very carefully – to make sure the period during which there is no prime minister is very short.
Normally it is a matter of minutes, but this process has historically involved only a very short trip from No 10 to Buckingham Palace.
This time Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have had to travel to Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire.
And the period where there is no PM is quite a bit longer. We expect Truss to arrive to meet the Queen in the next half an hour.
Boris Johnson has left Balmoral Castle
The cars carrying Boris Johnson have left Balmoral Castle to head back to Aberdeen airport.
No words between the Queen and her PMs ever leak out
All audiences between the Queen and any of her prime ministers are strictly private.
No word has ever really leaked out about the nature or the detail of what has been discussed.
The formal business will be concluded very quickly, and after the resignation, there is generally a less formal audience meeting at which the prime minister’s spouse is also in the room.
Carrie Johnson wearing silk dress as she accompanies outgoing PM
Carrie Johnson is wearing pink on Tuesday as she joins her husband at Balmoral Castle, and for his final appearance as prime minister outside Downing Street earlier.
The fuchsia dress is from British brand Harmur that specialises in silk backless pieces.
Retailing at £485, the Dreamy maxi dress is currently on sale for £194. Boris Johnson wore a grey suit and blue tie to give his farewell speech.
Where will Boris Johnson live next?
Now that he’s handing back the keys to 10 Downing Street, Boris Johnson will have to find a new residence.
London’s Evening Standard recently reported that he and his wife Carrie had bought a house in the South-East London neighbourhood of Herne Hill.
The area includes Brockwell Park, a potential playtime spot for the Johnsons’ children – Wilf, two, and eight-month-old Romy – as well as their dog Dilyn.
Convoy carrying Truss to Balmoral sets off
The convoy of vehicles taking Liz Truss to Balmoral Castle from Aberdeen airport has departed.
Both her plane and the one that carried Boris Johnson on the same journey earlier are waiting on the runway for the return leg of the 1,100-mile round trip from London to the Highlands.
The BBC understands the government is planning an intervention in the wholesale gas and electricity markets which would benefit both domestic and business customers.
It’s thought the government plans to freeze household bills at their current level through this winter and next – so roughly 18 months.
Energy companies would take out government-guaranteed loans to bridge the gap between the wholesale price in the market and the fixed price they are charging customers. Those loans would be repaid over the next 10-20 years through supplements to customer bills.
The precise mechanism to help businesses may be more complicated and would be reviewed more frequently, but reports suggest it could see the government mandate energy firms to offer specific reductions on the unit price of the energy businesses use.
The way that energy companies would be reimbursed for their losses on sales to business customers is also unclear.
The government estimates that the total package will amount to somewhere between £100-130bn, but the ultimate number will depend on movements in the international energy markets which have been extremely volatile – so it could be less, or it could be a lot more.
An intervention of this nature on this scale is very hard to price.
It is also unclear how the government will treat its exposure to the energy market through its loan guarantees, as clearly there is a risk that energy companies might be unable to repay their loans if their domestic customers are unable to pay or if their business customers go bust.
Johnson and Truss flying in separate planes
Boris Johnson and Liz Truss flew in separate planes to meet the Queen in Balmoral for security reasons, according to officials.
The same protocol is sometimes used when members of the Royal Family travel.
After a few minutes of circling and a slightly circuitous flight in foggy conditions, Liz Truss has safely landed at Aberdeen airport.
She’s now due to make the drive of just over an hour to Balmoral Castle to meet the Queen for the transition of power from Boris Johnson – who is himself en route to the castle.
The plane carrying Liz Truss has been in a holding pattern near Aberdeen airport. It then started flying further towards the east coast before seemingly turning back towards Aberdeen, according to Flightradar24.
The runway is covered in a thick layer of fog, which may be causing some issues for the pilots.
In his speech earlier, Boris Johnson paid tribute to the people in his government who’d “got Brexit done” – a claim he’s made many times before.
In a literal sense, the UK did leave the EU on January 31, 2020.
But if this slogan implied Brexit would be done and dusted, this has clearly not happened.
A huge amount remains unresolved, from Northern Ireland to financial services.
A large number of trade deals have been signed around the world (the vast majority of which simply replace the ones the UK already had as an EU member), but a deal with the US hasn’t happened.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which makes economic judgements for the government, predicts that leaving the EU will reduce the UK’s imports and exports by about 15% in the long term, with about a 4% hit to productivity.
Supporters of Brexit say sovereignty has been restored, and unwanted regulations can now be cut.
