As the Queen prepares to appoint the fifteenth Prime Minister of her reign, the question of where she will welcome them is much discussed. Her Majesty is now in Balmoral for her annual summer break but is understood to be planning to return to London to accept Boris Johnson’s resignation and then ask his successor, chosen by the Conservative party, to form a new government. However, there is nothing to prevent her carrying out the process at her Scottish home, if she so chooses. In fact, her own great grandfather set a rather exotic precedent when it comes to appointing Prime Ministers.
When Edward VII had headed to Biarritz for a springtime break in 1908, his government had been under the stewardship of Liberal Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. But his health was failing fast and on April 3rd, he resigned. Herbert Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was selected as his successor without opposition ensuring a smooth transition – with one small obstacle. The king was still in France. And so Herbert Asquith headed to the Riviera to become Prime Minister.
He arrived at the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz on April 7th 1908 for the traditional ceremony of ”kissing of hands’. It was a very regal setting. The hotel had originally been built as a holiday home around 1855 for the Empress Eugenie by her still doting husband, Napoleon III. It was turned into a hotel in 1880 and by the time Edward VII and Herbert Asquith met there, it had been completely rebuilt within its original walls following a fire in 1903.
This ‘kissing hands’ took place behind the closed doors of the hotel’s luxurious rooms with Asquith leaving almost immediately to return home and start to build his government. Edward remained in Biarritz, a place he loved.
In The Queen’s reign, we have become used to the sight of the Prime Ministerial car sweeping into Buckingham Palace with one incumbent and sweeping out again soon afterwards carrying a new premier on the path to power. But the fact that a politician was ready to travel so far, so quickly underlines how vital this ancient tradition is to the transition. Biarritz, Buckingham Palace or Balmoral – the location is rather less important than the moment itself. The place where The Queen appoints a new Prime Minister might yet surprise us all.