One of King Charles III’s weekly duties will be to meet with his Prime Minister in audience, and with a little help from a former Prime Minister, he has been given an added boost as he steps into the job.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, David Cameron revealed that he used to hold audiences with the then Prince of Wales to prepare him for the day he would host them in his own reign.
Mr Cameron, who was Prime Minister from 2010 – 2016, said: “I had audiences with Prince Charles when Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne because he wanted to start thinking about how to conduct those audiences. From what I saw he will be brilliant at that job.”
The former Conservative Party leader said that he believes King Charles III’s ‘long apprenticeship’ has prepared him for the role of monarch, saying that the king is “Brilliant at listening, brilliant at asking questions, giving wise advice and sage counsel.”
He added that he saw a preview of His Majesty’s kingship at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, meetings of all the heads of Commonwealth countries that take place every two years in rotating host cities.
He said: “He knows everybody personally, he interacts with them brilliantly.”
The then Prince Charles attended the 2013 CHOGM session in Sri Lanka, opening it on behalf of his mother. In 2015, he and Camilla joined Elizabeth II and Prince Philip for CHOGM in Malta.
In 2018, at the London CHOGM session, he was formally voted as the next Head of the Commonwealth, a position that has traditionally gone to the monarch but is not a hereditary title. The next CHOGM session was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he travelled to Rwanda with Camilla to officially open the June 2022 session.
Mr Cameron said that The King is a “superb diplomat” and would be a “very worthy successor” to his late mother, Elizabeth II.
On Sunday, His Majesty held a reception with Commonwealth leaders, his first since becoming king on 8 September.
