CROWNING STREET
Queen WILL appoint Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak as the next PM in Balmoral in historic first after ‘suffering with mobility’
THE QUEEN will formally appoint the next Prime Minister at Balmoral in a historic first, Buckingham Palace confirmed today.
To save the 96-year-old monarch travelling back to London with her ongoing mobility issues, either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will become Britain's new premier in Scotland on September 6.
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Boris Johnson will also make the 1,000-mile round trip to resign as PM next Tuesday, before his successor has an audience with Her Majesty.
It is the first time the Queen has held the so-called kissing of the hands outside London or Windsor.
In 1868, Queen Victoria appointed Benjamin Disraeli at Osborne House, a then-royal residence on the north coast of the Isle of Wight.
And in 1885, Lord Salisbury was appointed at Balmoral while in 1908, King Edward VII appointed H. H. Asquith in a hotel room in the south of France.
It is understood the decision to have the "kissing of the hands" ceremony at Balmoral was taken now to provide certainty to the PM's diary and prevent a last-minute change of plans.
The Sun revealed last week that royal officials were drawing up plans for the meetings to happen at the Queen's Scottish estate.
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It is understood when the Queen arrived in Scotland last month for her ten-week holiday she had hoped to make the journey south when the PM is appointed.
The Tory leadership winner will be revealed on September 5 before travelling up to the Highlands the following day.
Foreign Secretary Ms Truss is on course to become Britain's 56th PM and the 15th formally appointed by the Queen.
Bookies and pollsters have her miles ahead of the ex-Chancellor after wooing Conservative members with her tax-cutting bonanza.
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The pair face their final hustings in London tonight as they scramble for the last votes before ballots close on Friday.
Windsor Castle had been earmarked for the traditional constitutional ceremony before Palace officials decided not to move the Queen from Balmoral.
She has been suffering mobility issues for a while, although made a rare appearance on the Palace balcony for the Platinum Jubilee.
Former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said: "The fact officials can't be sure the Queen will be well enough to travel next week is yet another reminder of her advanced age and increasing frailty.
"Despite this, the Queen remains determined to carry out her core duties.
"Appointing a new prime minister is not something that can easily be passed to Prince Charles, a king-in-waiting."
The Queen kissed hands with her first PM Winston Churchill in 1952 at Heathrow when she returned from Africa after her father King George VI died.
Every other PM since has travelled to Buckingham Palace.
But in 1908 after the sudden resignation of a sickly Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman the ceremony was carried out in France.
His replacement Herbert Asquith was forced to travel to Biarritz where the Queen’s great-grandfather King Edward VII was on holiday at the time.
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Asquith was appointed after an audience in a private room in a hotel and remains the only PM to have taken office on foreign soil.
The Queen has suffered “episodic mobility problems” for almost a year and spent a night in hospital last October.
KISS WITH WINSTON
THE Queen’s first Prime Minister was Winston Churchill who had been appointed just four months earlier by her father King George VI.
Churchill kissed hands with the young Queen for the first time on the tarmac at London Airport — now called Heathrow — when she landed back from Africa on February 7, 1952.
Since then, a string of Prime Ministers from Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair have “kissed hands” with the Queen.
Records reveal all incoming PMs during her reign have been appointed at Buckingham Palace.
In more modern times the incoming leaders have not been required to physically kiss the Queen’s hands.
What happens between them during the ceremony is usually kept private.
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