Queen Elizabeth II’s last prime minister has revealed what Her Majesty said to her in their poignant final meeting, two days before the monarch’s death at the age of 96.
Liz Truss had traveled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 6, 2022, to meet the queen as the newly appointed UK premier. The queen’s failing health had ruled out a journey to Buckingham Palace in London, where she would traditionally conduct such a meeting with the new PM.
But Truss said the monarch clearly did not sense how soon the end of her reign would come. “I’ll see you next week,” the Queen said to her as she left Balmoral. The monarch died two days later on September 8.
The revelations come in Truss’s new book Ten Years to Save the West. The former prime minister—whose premiership lasted only 44 days—was tasked with leading Britain through the mourning period of the queen’s death, including speaking at her state funeral.
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Truss, once an anti-monarchy rebel, holds the position as Queen Elizabeth’s 15th and final prime minister and King Charles III’s first.
In a serialized extract of her book, published by the Daily Mail, Truss described her last meeting with the queen and a piece of advice she was given, but admits she did not take.
“That Tuesday, September 6, 2022, she was standing up as she greeted me in her drawing room. I was told she’d made a special effort to do so, but she gave no hint of discomfort throughout our discussion,” she wrote of the queen.
“This was only my second one-on-one audience with her. On the previous occasion, after I’d been removed from a different job in the Government, she’d remarked that being a woman in politics was tough.
“For about 20 minutes, we discussed politics—and it was clear she was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty. There simply wasn’t any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.”
“I knew I’d never forget my last meeting with Her Majesty— and especially what she said towards the end of our talk in her drawing room,” she went on to add.” Being Prime Minister, she warned me, is incredibly ageing. She also gave me two words of advice: ‘Pace yourself.'”
But Truss went on to make quick budgetary changes which proved disastrous for the economy. She was forced to resign and became the shortest-serving prime minister in U.K. history.
Newsweek approached Buckingham Palace via email for comment.
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It was after the queen’s state funeral that Truss began to enact her plans and policy changes under her new premiership which proved so disastrous in the short term. Her appointed chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, unveiled a new “mini budget” which was intended to ease the U.K. out of its ongoing economic malaise. But it caused turmoil, crashing the value of the U.K. currency and sending mortgage payments sky-high.
Despite firing Kwarteng, Truss could not regain the confidence of her party or members of the public and faced cross-party calls for her resignation. She notified the king of her decision to step down as prime minister barely six weeks after her appointment, on October 20.
She was succeeded by Rishi Sunak on October 25.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.