Queen 'more determined to be seen' says expert

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Dr Bob Morris believes a regency during the record-breaking reign of the Queen is “not inevitable”. However, he acknowledged the advancing age of Her Majesty raises the chances for a Regency to be triggered. The 96-year-old has been experiencing episodic mobility issues over the past months.

While she has continued to carry out her daily duties as sovereign behind the palace walls, including dealing with the Government’s red boxes and meeting foreign leaders and diplomats, her health woes have forced Her Majesty to take a step back and modify her schedule.

Since late October last year, the monarch has carried out only a handful of in-person visits outside of her residences.

And she was forced to pull out of a number of engagements throughout the past months, prompting other working members of the Firm to step in for her.

Most notably, Prince Charles and Prince William attended the State Opening of Parliament in May in lieu of the Queen’s absence. 

Together, they were at the Houses of Parliament as the Queen’s Counsellors of State, authorised to carry out constitutional duties in case of her absence from the country or in case of illness.

The Prince of Wales delivered the Queen’s Speech, providing a glimpse of his future role once he accedes to the throne. 

On Friday, it was announced the monarch would not attend the Braemar Games at the weekend for the first time since her accession to the throne, while her son and heir would still attend them.

Most recently, the mobility issues prompted Her Majesty to choose to meet the outgoing Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the winner of the Tory leadership contest at Balmoral rather than at Buckingham Palace, where the monarch has historically appointed all her Prime Ministers over the past seven decades.

While other members of the Firm, and Charles in particular, have been supporting the monarch since she started experiencing health issues, Dr Morris believes the 96-year-old Queen “cannot yet be deemed to satisfy the test in the Regency Act 1937”. 

He told Express.co.uk: “Are we any closer to a regency? Well, we are certainly adjusting to the fact that, not surprisingly, the Queen is not as readily mobile as she was.

“However, we are still some way away from a regency because she cannot yet be deemed to satisfy the test in the Regency Act 1937, that is that she is ‘by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions.’

“At present it appears that her frailties fall well short of satisfying such tests.

“Although travelling to Balmoral may possibly be inconvenient for ministers, they have previously done so on occasion to attend for Privy Council business, and it seems doubtful that the winner of the present Conservative leadership conference will begrudge the trouble of assisting the convenience of the present monarch.” 

Mr Johnson said on Wednesday, after it was confirmed the monarch would not make a round 1,000-mile trip to London to appoint the new political leader of the country, the aim was to make the Queen’s life as easy as possible.

Speaking in Barrow-in-Furness, where he travelled for the commissioning of a newly-built submarine, the outgoing Prime Minister said: “I can tell, you that we will certainly make sure the arrangements for the handover will fit totally around her, and whatever she wants.”

Dr Morris went on to say a regency won’t necessarily happen during the Queen’s reign.

He said: “It is not inevitable that at some point a Regency will be declared. 

“On the other hand, the older the Queen gets, the more likely resort to a Regency becomes.

“Meanwhile – and for the foreseeable future – there is much that other members of the Royal Family can do – and are in fact doing – to shoulder royal burdens, for example also in undertaking investitures.

“Ministers will no doubt themselves wish to minimise burdens on the Queen where they can, and we can all readily appreciate that that consideration is the least that can be expected in her case.”

While the appointment of the next Prime Minister in Scotland marks a break with the Queen’s tradition, it is far from being a first in Britain’s history.

Dr Morris said: “It is not the first time a new PM has had to travel out of London.

“When Asquith succeeded Campbell-Bannerman in April 1908, Asquith had to travel to Biarritz (where the King was on holiday) in southern France to kiss hands. 

“There was even a plan – speedily scotched – that the new Cabinet should receive their seals of office from the King’s hands at the Hotel Crillon in Paris.”

While the fact the monarch won’t travel to London has been perceived as a concerning signal by some commentators and royal watchers worried the Queen’s health may be worsening, historian Dr Tessa Dunlop interpreted this break with tradition as a sign the monarch still very much wants to carry out her duties.

Appearing on the Mail+’s Palace Confidential, she said: “This is a sign that she is still actively in the game, that she wants to ask the new Prime Minister… I think she is worried about the state of Britain, we are in a crisis mode at the moment.”

She added: “I think she probably wants to have a quiet word with the new Prime Minister, and I take that as a good sign.”

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