King Charles is about to get the fourth Prime Minister of his reign and while the decision about who will lead Labour, following the resignation of Sir Keir Starmer, will be taken by the party itself, their pick can’t be PM until The Monarch asks them.
With speculation rife that Andy Burnham will be selected as the new leader, focus is switching to the timetable that will see Sir Keir replaced as Labour leader and PM.
As he announced his resignation, on the morning of June 22 2026, Sir Keir said he hoped that the job would be done by the time parliament returns from summer recess. That is set to happen on September 1 2026, around ten weeks away. And once the decision is made, Sir Keir will have to formally resign as PM, by speaking to The King in person, before his successor is invited to meet The Monarch who will ask them to form a new government.
In recent times, this usually takes place at Buckingham Palace. When Sir Keir won a huge majority in the General Election in 2024, he travelled to the Palace to be invited to form a government. His car arrived as the vehicle carrying his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, was whizzing the other way through central London after the outgoing PM spoke to The King to inform him of his loss and to step aside immediately as Prime Minister.
However, as the latest changeover of power looks set to happen this summer, that means King Charles may well be somewhere other than Buckingham Palace when the big day arrives.
The King and Queen usually spend late summer at Balmoral, the Royal Family’s residence in the Scottish Highlands. In fact, it’s also traditional for them to ask the PM and their partner to pass a weekend at Balmoral every summer.
It cuold be that the timing of the Labour leadership race means that the outgoing PM and the incoming new leader will have to go to Scotland for the meetings. This happened in 2022, when Elizabeth II was at Balmoral when Boris Johnson was replaced as leader of the Conservative Party by Liz Truss who then became PM. However, Elizabeth II had been determined to travel to London for the meetings but was advised by doctors to stay in Scotland as her health was already poor. Just two days after kissing hands with hew new PM, Elizabeth II died.
Given those circumstances, it may be that King Charles prefers not to invite the outgoing and incoming PMs to Balmoral for this important set of meetings. The Highlands residence is also a long journey from London and in 2022, the meetings were delayed by bad weather. It’s perhaps more likely that The King would return to London, even if only briefly, to carry out the meetings.
However, King Charles also likes to spend part of the summer at Sandringham, his private estate in Norfolk. This is a few hours’ drive from London and much more easily accessible. Depending on the timeframe set out by the Labour Party for its change of leader, The King could be at Sandringham when the new PM is chosen and a trip from the capital to Norfolk seems more possible than two politicians spending a day going backwards and forwards to Balmoral.
It’s highly unlikely that King Charles will be out of the country when the decision is made. The Labour Party will now set out the timetable and The King’s diary can be altered to make sure any private holidays or official overseas visits work around the date that a new PM will be picked. However, a trip abroad isn’t unheard of when it comes to changing PMs.
In 1908, Herbert Asquith became Prime Minister after a leadership change but King Edward VII was on holiday on the French Riviera. And so to become PM, Asquith travelled to Biarritz and the kissing hands ceremony took place at the hotel where Edward VII was staying. The Hotel du Palais had originally been built for the Empress Eugenie by her husband, Napoleon III, so it had a regal air. But for the only time in history, a hotel became the place where a king asked a PM to take power.
It’s unlikely that Andy Burnham, current favourite to replace Sir Keir Starmer, will be heading overseas to take up power in a hotel lobby. However, the timing of this much anticipated leadership race means that the traditions of changing power could get a new look after all.
