Queen Elizabeth to Break Longstanding Tradition Due to Health Issues
For the first time in her historic 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth will appoint UK's next prime minister outside of Buckingham Palace, marking a major break from royal tradition. Amid her ongoing mobility issues, the 96-year-old monarch will receive either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party at Balmoral Castle, her castle in Scotland.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the news Wednesday, telling numerous outlets, including PEOPLE and Entertainment Tonight, that Her Majesty will not be making the 1,000-mile round trip from Scotland for the important event. Instead, the outgoing leader Boris Johnson will travel north from London on Tuesday, Sept. 6 for a formal farewell. The Queen will then meet with the new prime minister, either Truss or Sunak, for the traditional appointment that's known as "kissing hands."
The decision to break royal tradition by not receiving the new prime minister at Buckingham Palace and instead hold the audiences at Balmoral in order to provide certainty for the Prime Minister's diary, a royal source told PEOPLE. In recent months, the monarch has experienced episodic mobility issues, which have forced her to cancel planned appearances, and they wanted to avoid having to make last-minute alternative arrangements.
Appointing a new prime minister, along with the State Opening of Parliament and the signing of parliamentary bills into law, is one of the Queen's core responsibilities as Head of State. Although the special moment typically occurs at Buckingham Palace, she met her first prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill, when she stepped off the plane that brought her back from Kenya to Britain in 1952. However, all the others have gone to see her at the palace. The appointment of a new prime minister is so significant that when Theresa May was replaced by Johnson in the summer of 2019, the Queen postponed her holiday in Scotland to meet with Johnson at Buckingham Palace. Given the significance of the appointment, it is not a duty that the Queen could pass on to her son, Prince Charles, who has taken on more responsibilities and stepped in for his mother during her health woes.
The Queen has been experiencing mobility issues for some time now. It was first reported in March that the monarch was finding it "extremely difficult" to walk or stand for long periods of time. As a result, "her attendance at events depends on her day-to-day health," it was previously reported, and Her Majesty has begun to delegate royal duties to other members of the family, namely her son, who is next in line to the throne.