News

Boris Johnson reveals what Queen said to him in their final meeting

Boris Johnson reveals what Queen said to him in their final meeting
Queen's coffin arrives at Buckingham Palace
IndyTV

Boris Johnson has revealed what Queen Elizabeth II said to him in their final meeting.

The former Prime Minister spoke about the late monarch after she passed away at the age of 96 last week.

While she was visibly ill during their meeting, Johnson recalled her being “bright” and “focused”.

“She was actively focused on geopolitics, on U.K. politics, quoting statesmen from the ’50s. It was quite extraordinary,” Johnson told the BBC after the news broke.

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

He also said that while the queen was “clearly not well” during their meeting, it was “shocking” to hear the news of her death just two days later.

“I just thought how incredible that her sense of duty had kept her going in the way that it had. And, given how ill she obviously was, how amazing that she should be so, so bright and so focused,” he said. “It was a pretty emotional time.”

When news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death was released last Thursday evening (8 September), the UK embarked on an official mourning period that will last until after her funeral on 19 September.

Prince Harry and Prince William will walk alongside their father, King Charles III, today as they will follow the Queen’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where the late monarch will lie in state.

Johnson left his post as Prime Minister after Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race.

While he met the queen during recent weeks, Johnson also spent a great deal of his final days in Number 10 doing far less useful things too.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
The Conversation (0)
x