Queen’s health ‘unstables the country’ says Levin

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The 96-year-old monarch had hoped to be at the popular Highland Games event, which she has attended for most of her 70-year reign, but pulled out yesterday.

Although she has looked frail for a while and regularly uses a stick, sources say she has been relishing the beautiful countryside in Aberdeenshire.

The Queen has been seen walking her dogs, enjoying picnics – and at times used a £62,000 golf buggy to roam around parts of the 50,000-acre estate.

Prince Charles, who is patron of The Royal Scottish Highland Games Association, will maintain the Royal Family’s presence at Braemar and present awards to competitors.

There will be disappointment among some spectators – who travel from around the world to watch traditional sports such as the caber toss, hammer throw and tug-o-war – at his mother’s absence.

The Queen has had “episodic” mobility problems since last autumn and has had to pull out of several events. She also lost weight during last summer’s Balmoral stay.

But she has maintained her enthusiasm and has been seen walking her dogs, enjoying picnics and is understood to have used a £62,000 golf buggy to get around parts of the 50,000-acre estate.

Sitting watching the games before a big crowd might have been too much for her.

The Queen had planned to go to Braemar and enjoy the weekend at her Highland retreat before heading south on Monday to prepare for a fresh Prime Minister. She was meant to host audiences for departing Boris Johnson and his successor at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle on Tuesday and oversee a Privy Council the next day.

In a first change with convention, she is to appoint either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak and bid farewell to Mr Johnson at Balmoral.

The politicians will make the 1,000-mile round trip to Royal Deeside, as courtiers could not be sure the monarch would be fit enough to travel if she had a bout of pain and immobility in her legs.

The Queen increasingly has handed many key duties to Charles and her health problems raised questions about how much she will do in future. Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, said: “The fact officials can’t be sure the Queen will be well enough to travel next week is yet another reminder of her advanced age and increasing frailty.”

But he noted: “Appointing a new Prime Minister is not something that can easily be passed to Prince Charles, a King-in-waiting.” The Queen will still be able to keep up with the Braemar Gathering action – the games, back after two years of Covid cancellations, will be live online for the first time.

A spokesman said: “The stream will be free to access and following this trial we hope to bring you a much more immersive online experience next year.” Charles, 73, will open the Platinum Jubilee Arch created in tribute to the Queen, longest-serving patron of the Braemar Royal Highland Society. The Royal Family has attended the Gathering since 1848.

The Queen’s eldest son, who is staying at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate, has been visiting her daily. Aides declined to give a running commentary on her health.

Next week’s audiences are believed to be the first time she has appointed a PM away from Buckingham Palace. In 1963, Harold Macmillan resigned while recovering from surgery. The Queen visited him in hospital in London but his successor Sir Alec Douglas-Home was appointed at the Palace.

Her great-grandfather Edward VII refused to interrupt his holiday in south-west France in 1908 to appoint a prime minister, so Herbert Asquith had to request an audience with him in a hotel room in Biarritz.

Earlier this week Mr Johnson said arrangements for the handover would be down to the Queen and “fit totally around her”. In 2019, after an audience where he accepted her invitation to form a Government, Mr Johnson said the monarch quipped: “I don’t know why anyone would want the job.”

The Queen will hold a virtual Privy Council meeting on Wednesday when the new PM will be sworn in.

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