What Her Majesty REALLY thought of her 15 Prime Ministers: Mrs Thatcher curtseyed so low she made royal aides smirk. Harold Macmillan left Her Majesty in tears. And Harold Wilson told her he was quitting as she did the washing-up
- Queen Elizabeth II held weekly audiences with 15 prime ministers during her seven decades of ruling
- Earlier this week she was pictured at Balmoral castle welcoming the newest Prime Minister, Liz Truss
- She had frosty relations with Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair but was fond of Churchill and Harry Wilson
- Full coverage: Click here to see all our coverage of the Queen’s passing
Clearly, it is a testament to the late Queen’s extraordinary tact and reserve that although she held weekly audiences with 15 Prime Ministers, from Sir Winston Churchill, via Ted Heath, John Major to Liz Truss, we know very little about what actually went on when the doors were closed.
Even so, it is possible, by piecing together court rumours and political confidences, to get a pretty good idea of the Queen’s relations with those who ran her governments. As somebody who loved horses and the countryside, she naturally got on best with premiers who shared her interests. Indeed, the tweedy Conservative PM Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who governed from 1963 to 1964, was already a family friend before he landed the top job.
As one aide remarked, they were ‘the same sort of people’ and spent their meetings talking about ‘dogs and shooting’.
Yet, although most insiders agree that the Queen privately inclined to One Nation Conservatism, she was far from partisan. Two of her favourite Prime Ministers were the Labour duo of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, with whom she got on warmly.
Of course, the Queen’s age played a part. She was young enough to be the daughter of most of the Conservative premiers of the 1950s; indeed, she was even young enough to have been Churchill’s granddaughter.
By the 1980s, however, she was a grandmother herself. Little wonder that, according to court gossips, she thought Tony Blair and David Cameron comparatively callow. The Queen got on best with Prime Ministers who were both relaxed and respectful. She did not expect her PM to become a bosom companion: Callaghan, who greatly enjoyed his audiences with her, wrote later that she offered ‘friendliness, not friendship’.
All in all, she could hardly have handled her constitutional duties with greater self-discipline. Indeed, by comparison with her predecessor Victoria, who meddled and made no secret of her prejudices, Elizabeth II was a model of political responsibility. It is a shame the same could not always be said for her Prime Ministers . . .
It is a testament to the late Queen’s extraordinary tact and reserve that although she held weekly audiences with 15 Prime Ministers, we know very little about what actually went on
Queen Elizabeth greeted newly elected leader of the Conservative party Liz Truss earlier this week
Winston Churchill was Queen Elizabeth’s first Prime Minister she encountered as Queen
WINSTON CHURCHILL
(1951-1955)
Born during the reign of Victoria, the man who won World War II was almost 80 when the 25-year-old Elizabeth became Queen, and regarded her with grandfatherly affection. He proclaimed a new ‘Elizabethan Age’ when she became Queen, while she offered to make him Duke of London.
Their weekly meetings were so successful that they often ran for two hours, with the unlikely couple laughing and gossiping about horse racing. One courtier confided that their meetings were ‘punctuated by peals of laughter, and Winston generally came out wiping his eyes’. Asked, decades later, which of her PMs she had most enjoyed meeting, the Queen reportedly replied: ‘Winston, of course, because it was always such fun.’
HIGHLIGHT: Churchill made no secret of his adulation for the Queen. He told a friend that ‘all the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part’.
HAROLD MACMILLAN
(1957-1963)
As a One Nation Tory patrician, Macmillan had an automatic rapport with his sovereign. At their first meeting, he recorded, she was ‘gracious but brief’. At the time, with the shock of the Suez Crisis still raw, he told her that his premiership might last only six weeks. In fact, it lasted six years.
She loved hearing his tales of political gossip, while in his diary he wrote that he found her ‘not only very charming but incredibly well informed’ and was ‘astonished by her grasp of detail’.
During this time, much of the Empire was wound up. In many ways this was a joint project, with Macmillan approving British withdrawal as the Queen threw herself into her role as head of the Commonwealth.
LOWLIGHT: When, stricken by ill health, Macmillan resigned in 1963, the Queen was reportedly in tears. But he arguably abused his relationship with her to persuade her to appoint his unelected aristocratic friend Lord Home to succeed him, rather than the more popular R. A. Butler.
Queen Elizabeth II with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson in June 1969 – one of her favourites
HAROLD WILSON
(1964-70, 1974-76)
As the son of an industrial chemist from Huddersfield, Labour PM Wilson could not have been more different from his Tory predecessors. But he got on so well with the Queen that he became one of her favourites. As with Churchill, his audiences often lasted for two hours, and he was once invited to stay for drinks.
A staunch monarchist, Wilson crushed his Labour colleague Tony Benn’s attempt to take the Queen’s head off Britain’s stamps.
The story goes that Wilson broke the news that he planned to resign while he and his wife were staying at Balmoral. The Queen was reportedly wearing an apron and washing the dishes when Wilson leaned on a worktop and told her.
HIGHLIGHT: The Queen came to Downing Street for a farewell banquet with his political colleagues in 1976 — a compliment that was previously awarded only to Winston Churchill.
JAMES CALLAGHAN
(1976-79)
Like Wilson, Callaghan had an excellent rapport with the Queen. As a son of a Royal Navy chief petty officer, and having served in the Navy himself, he was a patriot to his fingertips.
The Labour PM kept the discussions held in their audiences secret, but it is said that when he asked the Queen’s advice about a particularly thorny policy dilemma, she said good-humouredly: ‘That’s what you’re paid for!’
As PM, Callaghan presided over the Silver Jubilee of 1977. Reviewing the fleet from the Royal Yacht Britannia that year, he declined an invitation to take the applause with the monarch.
‘It was the Queen everyone had come to see,’ he wrote, ‘not me.’
LOWLIGHT: When Callaghan asked ministers to suggest a Silver Jubilee present for the Queen, he was appalled by the answers.
One proposed a copy of Labour’s constitution, while Tony Benn suggested a vase carved from coal by a miner. In the end Callaghan got his wife to buy her a silver coffee pot.
The Queen’s first female Prime Minister was a fervent admirer of the monarchy, curtseying so low that Palace aides reportedly had to conceal their smirks
Queen Elizabeth II, centre right and then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, centre left pose with former British premiers at a dinner at London’s 10 Downing Street, Dec. 4, 1985. From left, James Callaghan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath
MARGARET THATCHER
(1979-90)
The Queen’s first female Prime Minister was a fervent admirer of the monarchy, curtseying so low that Palace aides reportedly had to conceal their smirks. But relations were said to be frosty, and the mood never improved beyond painful politeness.
According to Palace insiders, the Queen was shocked by the rise in unemployment and urban rioting in Thatcher’s first term.
Then, in 1986, the Sunday Times ran a front-page story claiming that the monarch was ‘dismayed’ by her ‘uncaring’ Prime Minister, and she feared that Thatcher’s opposition to sanctions against South Africa would destroy her beloved Commonwealth.
However, insiders argue there was still warmth on both sides. ‘They were not friends, but there was huge respect for the job of one and the role of the other,’ one said. Indeed, when Thatcher went to Buckingham Palace to tender her resignation, the Queen is said to have spoken so kindly to her that she left in tears.
Lord Powell, Thatcher’s foreign affairs adviser, says of Thatcher’s 80th birthday party: ‘I can recall the Queen gently taking Mrs Thatcher by the hand and leading her around the room, talking to guests. Margaret by then was becoming more confused and forgetful, so it was an extraordinary gesture.
‘Later, when the Queen came to say her farewells, Lady Thatcher replied that she should leave, too. At which point Her Majesty said gently: “Perhaps you ought to stay Lady Thatcher — it is your party.” ’
LOWLIGHT: The workaholic Thatcher apparently dreaded invitations to Balmoral. As one observer remarked: ‘A weekend in the country with aristocrats who enjoy riding, shooting, sports and games is Thatcher’s idea of torture.’
TONY BLAIR
(1997-2007)
Fictionalised in the film The Queen, the relationship between the fresh-faced New Labour moderniser and the septuagenarian monarch was never easy. When Princess Diana was killed in 1997, Blair insisted that the Royal Family return from Balmoral to face the public.
The Queen was allegedly horrified when he tried to stage-manage the funeral, too.
LOWLIGHT: At the Millennium Dome New Year’s Eve celebrations in 1999, the Queen was appalled by Blair’s behaviour when he tried to link arms with her to sing Auld Lang Syne.
Queen Elizabeth II with former Prime Ministers David Cameron, Sir John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, ahead of a Diamond Jubilee lunch
Queen Elizabeth II greeting David Cameron at Buckingham Palace at an audience to invite him to be the next Prime Minister in 2010
DAVID CAMERON
(2010-2016)
His premiership saw the monarchy dragged into two of the biggest political and constitutional controversies in living memory.When the Scots voted to remain in the union in 2014 — after the Queen had urged them to ‘think carefully about the future’ — Cameron told New York’s former mayor that she had ‘purred down the line’, for which he later apologised.
Then, in 2016, newspapers claimed that the Queen backed Britain’s exit from the EU, saying: ‘I don’t see why we can’t just get out.’
LOWLIGHT: Cameron was recorded telling the Queen that he was set to welcome leaders of ‘some fantastically corrupt countries’ to Britain, including Commonwealth member Nigeria.
With his rackety personal life and somewhat chaotic manner, Boris Johnson was always unlikely to be a Palace favourite. His relationship with the Queen was overshadowed by controversy from the start, as he advised her to prorogue Parliament for more than a month to allow him to force through his Brexit plans.
Even as his critics claimed he was dragging the Queen into politics, after much political and constitutional wrangling, he secured a new Brexit deal from the EU and won a crushing majority at a general election. On Tuesday this week, far sooner than he imagined, Boris flew 500 miles with wife Carrie to Balmoral and formally resigned as the Queen’s penultimate Prime Minister. Her Majesty kept her own counsel, never giving the slightest hint of what she made of it all.
LOWLIGHT: Perhaps the nadir of all her relationships with her 15 PMs came when Johnson’s office was forced to apologise to the Queen, saying it was ‘deeply regrettable’ that a gathering took place at No 10 ‘during a time of national mourning’ — on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral.
LIZ TRUSS
(Current)
The Queen’s 15th Prime Minister, Liz Truss, flew to Balmoral — in a break with tradition — to kiss hands on Tuesday.
In an ironic twist of fate, the new leader had been a teenage republican before coming to recognise the importance of the monarchy.
Perhaps never in recent political history had there been a more obvious generational contrast. Born in 1975, Truss was almost half a century younger than the monarch. In an extraordinary reflection of the Queen’s sheer longevity, her final Prime Minister — the third woman to hold the office — had been born almost 101 years after her first, Sir Winston Churchill.
HIGHLIGHT: The picture of Truss’s audience with the Queen was the last ever taken of the monarch performing her official duties — the perfect symbol, at the end of her long life, of her patriotic service and devotion to duty.
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