Queen Elizabeth II, 93, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 55, were photographed carrying out their weekly audience by telephone after lockdown measures were first put into place to prevent the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. However, Boris has since been admitted to hospital to be treated for coronavirus COVID-19 and was transferred to intensive care on Monday evening. This means Boris will be unable to carry out his weekly audience with the Queen from intensive care but the important exchange between Government and the head of state is still likely to go ahead on Tuesday.

Who will stand in for Boris and speak to the Queen?

Britain is a constitutional monarchy and the Queen is our head of state.

The Queen’s audience with the Prime Minister is an essential royal custom which informs her role as a constitutional monarch.

While Mr Johnson’s condition makes him unable to act as Prime Minister, foreign secretary Dominic Raab is expected to fill his shoes.

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• How Queen Elizabeth II’s moving speech ‘appealed to British spirit’

Dominic Raab is expected to hold an audience with the Queen on Tuesday in Boris Johnson’s place.

Following the Prime Minister’s admission to ICU at St Thomas’s Hospital in South London, a palace spokesman confirmed the Queen has been ‘kept informed’ by Downing Street on the Prime Minister’s condition and his transfer to Intensive Care.

A No 10 statement read: “The prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

“Over the course of [Monday] afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.”

The statement continued: “The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication.”

While the Prime Minister is in intensive care it is understood he has not been put on a ventilator but has been receiving oxygen.

He was said to remain in the same condition on Tuesday morning.

On Sunday evening the Queen’s stirring speech to the nation amid the current crisis was broadcast on radio and TV.

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The address was pre-recorded at Windsor Castle where the Queen has been spending lockdown with Prince Philip, 98.

In the speech, the Queen thanked frontline and NHS staff working to keep the nation running amid the current crisis.

She also thanked Britons for staying at home and observing lockdown and to look forward to better times ahead.

One royal commentator claimed the Queen’s powerful speech spoke directly to the British spirit.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwiliams told Express.co.uk: “I think one of the reasons the Queen’s broadcast was so moving and so effective is that it appealed to aspects of the British character, the need for self-discipline and quiet good-humoured resolve when in a crisis.

“She was sure the current generation were ‘as strong as any’ and she spoke of pride in being British, which was linked to the present and the future not just the past.”

“Her unequalled experience and the reference to her broadcast, also from Windsor Castle in 1940, places this in context, as this is the first broadcast in her 68-year reign which is during an unprecedented emergency.

“It is a speech which has been watched by an audience of 23 million and many more will have seen trails or heard part of it on the news or read about it.”

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