Liz Truss has officially become Prime Minister after meeting with the Queen, who formally asked her to form a government on her behalf.
Ms Truss travelled to see Her Majesty at Balmoral after winning the Tory leadership race yesterday following the resignation of Boris Johnson. The historic audience was the first time the 96-year-old monarch, who has faced ongoing mobility issues, has carried out the key duty to appoint her 15th PM at her retreat in Aberdeenshire, rather than at Buckingham Palace. But it might have been an awkward encounter given Ms Truss once called for the monarchy to be abolished.
As a 19-year-old student addressing the 1994 Liberal Democrat conference, she declared "We do not believe people are born to rule" and said she had canvassed opinion from the public who told her "Abolish them, we’ve had enough".
Ms Truss, who has since said her political ideas developed as she grew up, said the Queen was "far too polite" to bring up her previous stance when they met previously.
"I’ve already met the Queen and she’s been far too polite to raise that issue with me," she said during a Sky News debate in August.
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Asked whether she would apologise if the Queen did mention it, Ms Truss said: "Well, I was wrong to say what I did at the time."
She was also asked by the BBC ’s Nick Robinson about her previous comments and she said she was a “professional controversialist” in her youth and "liked exploring ideas and stirring things up".
But she added: "I began to understand more about why Britain is successful, and part of our success is the constitutional monarchy that supports a free democracy."
The Queen and Ms Truss have encountered each other on a number of occasions, including at Windsor Castle last October.
As foreign secretary, Ms Truss met the monarch when the Queen greeted a line-up of guests at a Global Investment Summit reception for billionaire business leaders, politicians and tech entrepreneurs.
Ms Truss shook the Queen's hand and appeared from the photographs to have performed a small curtsy.
The pair have also met at Privy Council meetings, with Ms Truss having "kissed hands upon appointment and received the Seals of Office" for each of her Cabinet roles.
She became a Privy Counsellor for the first time in 2014 as environment secretary.
They are both Elizabeths – yet while it is the Queen’s first name (as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary), it is actually Ms Truss's middle name and her first is a similarly-regal Mary, which she has never used.
The audience this lunchtime will take place in Balmoral's green-carpeted Drawing Room, which has matching green sofas, a leaf-patterned fabric chair, an open fire and a number of equine-themed antique paintings on the walls.
It will follow Boris Johnson’s audience with the Queen, during which he will tender his resignation as PM.
As head of state, it is the Queen’s duty to appoint the prime minister who leads Her Majesty’s Government.
The Royal Encyclopedia states that the appointment of a prime minister is “one of the few remaining personal prerogatives of the sovereign”.
The monarch does not act on advice nor need to consult anyone before calling upon the leader with an overall majority of seats in the House of Commons to form a government.
After a new premier has been appointed, the Court Circular will record that "the Prime Minister kissed hands on appointment". This is not literally the case, and it is usually a handshake.
