The queen and her 15 prime ministers

During her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II met with prime ministers for weekly private “audiences.” Prime ministers talked to the monarch knowing that their conversation wouldn’t be leaked – at least by the queen. Still, snippets from their meetings leak out, in conversations, biographies and embarrassing hot-mic moments.

The queen played an important constitutional role in the transition of power by inviting prime ministers to form a government. Her final prime minister was Liz Truss. Truss was the queen’s 15th prime minister; her first was Winston Churchill, who was born in 1874.

1. Winston Churchill

Elizabeth became queen in 1952, at just 25 years old. When she stepped off the plane from Kenya following the death of her father, Winston Churchill was waiting on the tarmac to greet her. Historians say Churchill, who was a great admirer of the queen’s father, initially thought Elizabeth was too inexperienced for the role. But they would become very fond of each other.

Churchill once remarked, “All the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part.”

The queen sent him a handwritten letter after he retired saying how much she would miss him and how no successor “will ever be able to hold the place of my first prime minister.”

2. Anthony Eden

The queen’s early meetings with Anthony Eden were dominated by the possible marriage of the queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, to Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorcée, meaning it was complicated and could involve the state. In the end, Margaret decided not to marry Townsend. Eden was also the leader during the 1956 Suez crisis. There was much speculation at the time about how much he confided in the queen about plans to reclaim the canal.

3. Harold Macmillan

The queen and her third prime minister did not initially hit it off. “He was unsure whether the Prime Minister’s annual visit to Balmoral was a social occasion, with ‘talking shop’ relegated to the margins, or a Highlands version of his weekly audiences at Buckingham Palace,” according to a government blog post. But the two were soon “on the same wavelength,” and the queen came to rely on his counsel.

4. Alec Douglas-Home

Alec Douglas-Home’s predecessor famously described him to the queen as “steel painted as wood.” Not that he needed an introduction. He was a fellow Scottish landowner — and a childhood friend of the queen’s mother. He helped the queen name royal horses over the years.

5. Harold Wilson

Wilson was the queen’s first Labour prime minister. At the outset, it seemed as if Wilson, a leader with socialist leanings, may not have much in common with the British queen. But the two, only a decade apart in age, got on famously. In his book, “The Queen: Elizabeth II and the Monarchy,” Ben Pimlott wrote that Wilson “behaved towards her — unexpectedly — as an equal, and talked to her as if she were a member of his Cabinet.”

6. Edward Heath

The queen’s relationship with Edward Heath was not the smoothest. Heath is probably best remembered as the leader who took Britain into Europe; the queen, however, took great pride in her role as head of the Commonwealth. “She was never comfortable with him,” a former courtier told Pimlott, a royal biographer. Though he was “correct in his behavior” toward the queen, the closeness under Wilson was gone.

7. James Callaghan

James Callaghan, a devoted monarchist, established a good rapport with the queen, who he said was “able to see the funny side of life.” He found the queen to be a good listener. Their conversations, he said, “could roam anywhere over a wide range of social as well as political and international topics.”

8. Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher said the reported frostiness between her and the queen was hyped and sexist. “… I always found the Queen’s attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct,” Thatcher wrote in her memoir, “Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography.” “Of course, stories of clashes between ‘two powerful women’ were just too good not to make up.”

Although there was mutual respect between the women, who were only six months apart in age, there was no great warmth. Most notably, the two clashed over how to handle apartheid in South Africa. But there was admiration. After Thatcher stepped down, the queen appointed her to the Order of the Merit, one of the highest honors in the United Kingdom.

9. John Major

John Major was the first prime minister who was younger than the queen. He was leader in 1992, the year the queen dubbed her annus horribilis or “horrible year.” It was during that year that Major gave a statement to Parliament announcing that Prince Charles and Princess Diana would be separating. Major also oversaw a new financial arrangement that saw the queen pay taxes. In an interview with Sky News, Major said the queen, whom he described as “shrewd,” was someone with whom premiers could talk freely. “In many ways it’s cathartic,” he said.

10. Tony Blair

Tony Blair, the Labour leader who governed for 10 years, was not thought to have had a particularly warm relationship with the queen, with whom he didn’t have many shared interests or hobbies. Blair also thought of himself as a “modernizer,” the buzzword at the time, whereas the queen represented stability and continuity.

In his book “A Journey,” Blair describes his first audience with the queen, where he said he noticed two things. “She was quite shy, strangely so for someone of her experience and position; and at the same time, direct.”

11. Gordon Brown

In his book, “My Life, Our Times,” Gordon Brown describes his first audience with the queen, saying they had a “congenial and businesslike conversation about the work that lay ahead.” But along with Tony Blair, he was not on the guest list for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 wedding. The omission didn’t go unnoticed.

12. David Cameron

The queen is said to have got on well with David Cameron, who is a distant relative of hers. But he nonetheless ruffled feathers when he disclosed a private conversation about the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Cameron was caught on television, still wearing a live microphone, talking to New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg about the results of the vote. He can be heard saying: “The definition of relief is being the prime minister of the United Kingdom and ringing the queen and saying ‘It’s all right, it’s okay.’ That was something. She purred down the line.”

Cameron would later apologize publicly — telling the BBC that he felt “extremely sorry and very embarrassed” — and probably privately, too.

13. Theresa May

Theresa May was the queen’s second female prime minister. It’s thought they got on well. May has said that the queen greets all of her prime ministers with “charm and consideration, and with an impressive knowledge and understanding of the issues of the day.”

14. Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson, a norm-busting prime minister, broke royal protocol minutes after he became leader. He revealed that the queen told him in their private meeting, “I don’t know why anyone would want the job.”

According to British media reports, Johnson apologized to the queen on more than one occasion. He is said to have apologized after the Supreme Court ruled that Johnson’s decision to ask the queen to suspend Parliament was “unlawful, void and of no effect.” He also publicly admitted to apologizing to the queen after revelations that parties were held at Downing Street during the coronavirus lockdown and on the eve of the queen’s husband’s funeral.

15. Liz Truss

The queen invited Liz Truss to form a new government just two days before her death. They met at the queen’s palace in Scotland. It would be the queen’s last major constitutional action.

On Sept. 8, after Buckingham Palace announced Elizabeth’s passing, Truss addressed Britain and hailed the queen’s long reign. “It’s an extraordinary achievement to have presided with such dignity and grace for 70 years. Her life of service stretched beyond most of our living memories,” she said.

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Editing and production by Reem Akkad and Morgan Coates.