For the first time in its history, the United Kingdom changes monarch and prime minister in the same week: an unparalleled baptism of fire for the new head of government, Liz Truss, who will have spent only 48 hours under Elizabeth II .
• Read also: LIVE | A first day without Queen Elizabeth II
• Read also: Prime Minister Liz Truss’ statement after the death of Elizabeth II
Over the decades, every British Prime Minister has had time to prepare for the possibility of the Queen’s death. But it is ultimately Liz Truss, officially appointed by the queen just two days before her death, who has to take the helm as a new era begins.
The latest official photos of Elizabeth II are those of her meeting on Tuesday with the new Conservative Prime Minister who succeeds Boris Johnson, at the Scottish castle of Balmoral.
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“I personally greatly appreciated his sage advice,” Liz Truss told Parliament on Friday. “She generously shared with me her long experience of government, even during these last days”.
By taking the head of the government, Liz Truss knew that she would not benefit from any state of grace: a few hours before the death of the queen, Thursday, she revealed to Parliament a massive aid plan in the face of soaring energy costs.
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This debate was interrupted when the head of government and those of the opposition were discreetly given a note informing them that the health of the queen had suddenly deteriorated.
Truss was then informed of the Queen’s death around 4:30 p.m. local time, two hours before it was officially announced.
The Tory was the Queen’s 15th Prime Minister, whose 70-year reign began with Winston Churchill in Downing Street.
Aged only 25 when she succeeded her father in 1952, young Elizabeth II had by her own admission leaned on Churchill to help her fulfill her constitutional duties.
At the end of his reign, it was the prime ministers’ turn to benefit from his experience during their weekly and very private audiences.
Meetings which Truss will be deprived of, starting under a new king, Charles III, who when he was still heir to the crown often intervened in political affairs, causing controversy.
On Friday, in Parliament, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a vibrant tribute to a sovereign “more radiant, well-informed and fascinated by politics than ever” during their last meeting, at the time of her resignation.
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Theresa May, who Johnson succeeded, also hailed Elizabeth as an “tremendously knowledgeable” queen.
“She was very judgmental about people,” Ms May told the BBC on Friday. “Sometimes it wasn’t just the individual, but some kind of story of that person, or their experiences in certain countries, on certain topics.”
If the queen felt very close to Churchill, declassified documents show that she was furious at Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to impose sanctions against South Africa under apartheid.
As for her relationship with Boris Johnson, she was upset at times, the Queen being dragged despite herself into a political crisis in September 2019, when the Supreme Court ruled that the suspension of Parliament at the approach of Brexit had been blown from her ” illegally” by the turbulent leader.
But in 1997, at the time of the trauma of Princess Diana’s death, the monarchy could count on the quick-wittedness of a prime minister.
Tony Blair, who called Diana a ‘people’s princess’, helped channel the national mood as the Queen faced intense popular pressure, and advised the palace to undo a constitutional straitjacket unsuited to the shock felt by the people.
Tony Blair and his Labor successor Gordon Brown paid tribute to the Queen and her sense of duty, as did Thatcher’s successor John Major.
“She was always extraordinarily well briefed,” Major commented, praising the “wisdom” of her advice. “And those meetings with the Queen were always the highlight of a Prime Minister’s week.”