Buckingham Palace has declined
to comment on whether the Queen has had any form of communication
with Prime Minister Boris Johnson since he announced his resignation
on Thursday morning.
The Queen, who is at her home
in Windsor Castle, held her weekly audience by telephone with Mr Johnson
on Wednesday evening. He is said to have given her a courtesy call the
following morning before announcing his decision to resign to the nation,
although the palace would not confirm this.
Mr. Johnson is resigning as
the Conservative leader later on Thursday, following a slew of ministerial
resignations this week. He plans to continue his role until the autumn to allow
a Tory leadership contest to take place in the summer, despite some Tory MPs
calling for him to step down immediately.
Mr. Johnson will have to
travel to the Queen to officially tender his resignation, usually after his
successor has been appointed. This resignation audience usually takes place at
Buckingham Palace but given the Queen’s age and mobility issues, and the timing
of the leadership contest, if the sovereign is at her holiday home
Balmoral over the summer, the audience could potentially take place in
Scotland.
Mr. Johnson is the Queen’s
14th Prime Minister during her reign. The monarch is politically neutral
and acts on the advice of her government in political matters.
Although Mr. Johnson openly
stated in his Parliamentary tribute to the Queen during her Jubilee year that
his weekly meetings with the monarch were “immensely comforting because
she has seen the sweep of it”.
His
tenure hasn’t been without its controversy though. Mr. Johnson broke protocol
twice when he publicly spoke about the pair’s private audiences, saying in
November 2019 on the day Parliament was dissolved: “I’m just off to see
Her Majesty the Queen, which is always a very tough interview because she
always asks the best questions and the question today is: ‘Why are we
having this election?'”
