Queen Elizabethfulfilled her most important constitutional role on Friday: appointing a new Prime Minister.
Conservative party leader Boris Johnson traveled to Buckingham Palace just before 11 a.m. for a private audience with the Queen, having secured an 80-seat majority in Thursday’s British general election — his party’s largest since 1987.
Johnson is the 14th British Prime Minister to have made the short journey across London, following in the footsteps of Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and the Queen’s first Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.
While the Conservative leader claimed the most seats in the election, the British constitution makes it clear that nobody gets the top job in the U.K. until they’ve traveled to Buckingham Palace.
Boris Johnson and Queen Elizabeth.Victoria Jones - WPA Pool/Getty
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left).VICTORIA JONES/POOL/AFP via Getty
The election winner is then taken for a private audience with the monarch — in this case, the Queen, 93 — where they’re asked if they’re able to form a government.
Once the politician replies yes, a ceremony known as the “Kissing of Hands” takes place. In previous generations, this would have required the election winner to physically kiss the hands of the monarch to prove their loyalty. Today, however, it is merely a symbolic term to show that the Government’s team has officially been appointed as ministers of the crown.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Buckingham Palace on Dec. 3.
The new Prime Minister will next meet the Queen at the state opening of Parliament — likely to take place on December 19 — where the monarch will also deliver her annual Queen’s Speech to set out the policies of the new administration.
It will be thesecond State Opening of Parliament in just two months,and Johnson has already inferred that it will be a “slimmed down” version of the historically glittering event.
So, while the Queen normally attends wearing her full state regalia, she may this time opt for a more dressed-down look.
Boris Johnson and Queen Elizabeth.
At a little more than three pounds, it is now slightly too heavy for the monarch to carry, and she is instead likely to again wear the smaller — and lighter —George IV State Diadem.
source: people.com
