Britain’s 56th prime minister Liz Truss will take office later on Tuesday on a day of speeches bookending an official audience with the Queen.

  • Boris Johnson pledges 'fervent support' for successor Liz Truss during final speech as PM
  • Leaves Downing Street with wife Carrie and flies to Balmoral to formally offer resignation to the Queen
  • Liz Truss to have audience with Queen early this afternoon and accept request to form a government


11.25am

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson has arrived at Balmoral with wife Carrie Johnson for his final audience with the Queen.

Mr Johnson was greeted by the Queen’s private Secretary Sir Edward Young and her Equerry Lieutenant Colonel Tom White, and said “good morning” a number of times to the Queen’s aides and a small group of waiting media.

Liz Truss becomes PM
Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson arriving at Balmoral (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Pages were on hand to open the doors of the chauffeur-driven car which arrived in light rain and stopped at the front door of Balmoral Castle.

The head of state and Mr Johnson will meet in the drawing room of the private royal residence where the former Tory party leader will offer his resignation to the Queen.

Following convention, the politician is expected to leave the Queen’s estate via a private route.

11.12am

A plane carrying Liz Truss to Scotland has landed at Aberdeen International Airport ahead of her meeting with the Queen at Balmoral.

The Dassault Falcon 900LX left RAF Northolt shortly after 9.30am but appeared to have a delayed landing after it was seen circling the airport.

The plane touched down at Aberdeen at 11.02am.

11.01am

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves a legacy of “scandal, sleaze and the highest inflation for decades”, according to Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Speaking on College Green on Tuesday morning, she told the PA news agency: “If you heard Boris Johnson’s speech this morning, you’d think everything was rosy and great.

“Actually, the legacy is scandal, sleaze, the highest inflation for decades, cost-of-living crisis, people’s standard of living going down, we’ve seen the highest tax burden on the UK and we’ve seen GP waiting lists going up, we’ve seen the NHS engulfed in a crisis, we’ve seen our public services really demoralised.

“He talked about levelling up, but northern rail has been levelled down, we’ve seen levelling down across the United Kingdom and partying when people quite frankly couldn’t see their relatives, and there was no acknowledgement of the scandalous behaviour from Boris Johnson – and of course Liz Truss was part of that Cabinet.

“I thought it was astonishing that he thought it was a good laugh and said: ‘bye, I’ve been a rocket and it’s been great’, when actually, it’s been a damp squib and everyone’s poorer as a result of it.”

Ms Rayner added that the new prime minister should tackle the cost-of-living crisis by adopting Labour’s plan for a windfall tax on gas and oil companies alongside longer-term solutions like investing in renewable energy and retrofitting homes.

10.58am

The Queen is said to never be happier than when she is staying on her beloved Balmoral estate.

RThe Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary. at Balmoral (PA)
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary. at Balmoral (PA)

Although prime ministers are often invited to stay there the resignation of Boris Johnson and appointment of Liz Truss will see a new page written in the residence’s history.

10.13am

Outgoing Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has submitted her letter of resignation.

Ms Dorries confirmed she had been asked to stay on as Culture Secretary by Liz Truss but decided to return to the backbenches.

9.50am

Carrie Johnson stood beside Nadine Dorries as she listened to her husband's farewell to Downing Street
Carrie Johnson stood beside Nadine Dorries as she listened to her husband’s farewell to Downing Street (Justin Tallis/PA)

9.45am

Julian Knight, the head of the DCMS Select Committee of MPs has wished Nadine Dorries the best for the future – despite their clashes during committee hearings – as it is expected she will not retain the post of Culture Secretary in Liz Truss’s cabinet later.

Sources close to Ms Dorries – who was a prominent supporter of Ms Truss during the leadership election – said she believed it was the right time to go.

It is understood she was given the opportunity to carry on in Cabinet but had chosen instead to return to the backbenches.

It is expected that she will now be given a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list, triggering a by-election in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

9.36am

A flight believed to be carrying Boris Johnson to Scotland has landed at Aberdeen International Airport.

The Dassault Falcon 900LX left RAF Northolt at 8.30am and landed at Aberdeen at 9.30am.

9.34am

Liz Truss becomes PM
A panoramic shot of Mr Johnson during his final speech shows the gathered media outside Downing Street as his staff and supporters watch on (Yui Mok/PA)

9.30am

Jane Hartley, US President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the UK, has paid tribute to Mr Johnson calling him a “true friend to America and the special relationship” between the two nations.

9.20am

Several Tory MPs have thanked the outgoing Prime Minister for his service as they await Liz Truss’s arrival after her audience with the Queen.

9.15am

The Downing Street twitter account has shared the full video of Mr Johnson’s departure speech.

9.06am

Simon Clarke said he “would be astonished” if Liz Truss’s new Cabinet did not include people who had backed her rival Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership contest.

“It will include people from right across the party and I would be astonished if it didn’t include people who backed Rishi,” the current Chief Secretary to the Treasury told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“The reality is that everybody wants to see the Conservative Party unite and bring together talent from across the party”.

He also said he was “certain that Liz will be magnanimous in victory” and that the “situation demands that we get together and that we govern in the national interest”.

Ms Truss is expected to begin outlining her top team later today after she has made her first speech as PM at Downing Street.

9am

8.50am

WATCH: Boris Johnson’s final farewell as he leaves office

8.45am

Years spent as MP before becoming prime minister
(PA Graphics)

8.40am

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke has indicated that Liz Truss’s plan to tackle soaring energy prices will be a “major intervention” to help businesses as well as households.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It will come very shortly and there is a clear commitment to rise to the level of events and to provide early certainty to families and businesses that there will be help available to meet the undoubted challenges that this autumn and winter are going to bring.

“So it will be a major moment I think in terms of drawing a line under the sense of uncertainty which undoubtedly is present in the country at this time.”

He refused to be drawn on the details of the plan, but also said: “It will be a major intervention and it will be something which is fair, fundamentally fair in terms of how it’s structured to look after, as I say, both the current situation, but also the long-term interest to bill-payers.”

8.33am

The Prime Minister’s plane has been filmed taking off at RAF Northolt on its journey to Balmoral where he will offer his resignation to the Queen.

Liz Truss becomes PM
Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson leave 10 Downing Street (Victoria Jones/PA)

He is expected to arrive at the door of Balmoral Castle at 11.20am for an audience with the Queen in which he will formally tender his resignation, in what has been described by allies as likely to be a “very sad” occasion for him.

Once he has left, the new Tory leader will be invited in for her private audience with the Queen. Ms Truss is due to arrive at Balmoral at 12.10pm and will be appointed Britain’s next prime minister and asked to form an administration.

After around 30 minutes with the Queen, Ms Truss is then expected to fly back to London and arrive at Downing Street to address the nation for the first time as PM at around 4pm.

8.26am

Ahead of revealing her first Cabinet later on Tuesday, Liz Truss has already seen key loyalist Nadine Dorries indicate she will not be staying on as Culture Secretary.

Priti Patel the Home Secretary has also said she intends to return to the backbenches.

8.22am

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has said that a general election should now take place.

Asked whether he would like to see a general election “sooner rather than later”, he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Very much so and for the very simple reason that what Liz Truss now seems to be proposing was not in the Tory manifesto in the 2019 election.

A cavalcade of cars carrying outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson
A cavalcade of cars carrying outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Yui Mok/PA)

“First and foremost, let’s put the support in place that families, that businesses, need.

“Let’s get that done and the right thing to do is then to put this to the people, to have that general election and let the people in Scotland express their opinion, and I think crucially their opinion as to whether or not Scotland should be an independent country.”

8.14am

In his farewell speech, he said: “On the subject of bouncing around in future careers, let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function.

“And I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.

“Like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough and I will be offering this Government nothing but the most fervent support”.

Classicist and TV presenter Dame Mary Beard offered an explanation on Twitter to the Cincinnatus reference.

“If you are curious about Boris Johnson’s reference to Cincinnatus in his goodbye speech – he was a 5th century BC Roman politician who saved the state from an invasion, then – job done – returned to his farm (‘to his plough’)”.

However, she added that Cincinnatus “was also an enemy of the people”.

Political journalist Andrew Neil also pointed out that the reference may be a clue to Mr Johnson’s future plans as Cincinnatus returned to Rome to resume his political career when the call came.

8.08am

Emphasising his record in office, Boris Johnson said: “We Conservatives understand the vital symmetry between government action and free market capitalist private sector enterprise.

“We’re delivering on those huge manifesto commitments: making streets safer, neighbourhood crime down 38% in the last three years, 13,790 more police on the streets, building more hospitals, and yes, we will have 50,000 more nurses by the end of the decade and 40 more hospitals by the end – 50,000 nurses by the end of this Parliament I should say – 40 new hospitals by the end of the decade.

“Putting record funding into our schools and into teachers’ pay, giving everybody over 18 a lifetime skills guarantee, so they can keep upskilling throughout their lives, three new high speed rail lines – three – including Northern Powerhouse Rail, colossal road programmes from the Pennines to Cornwall.

“The rollout of gigabit broadband up over the last three years, I’m proud to say, since you were kind enough to elect me, from 7% of our country’s premises having gigabit broadband to 70% today.

“And we are, of course, providing the short and the long-term solutions for our energy needs, and not just using more of our own domestic hydrocarbons, but going up by 2030 to 50 gigawatts of wind power. That is half of this country’s energy and electricity needs from offshore wind alone, a new nuclear reactor every year.”

8am

Boris Johnson has said he believes the UK union is “so strong” that people wishing to break it up will “never, ever succeed”.

He said: “I’m proud to have discharged the promises I made to my party when you were kind enough to choose me, winning the biggest majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979.

Liz Truss becomes PM
(Victoria Jones/PA)

“Delivering Brexit, delivering our manifesto commitments, including, by the way … social care, reforming social care, helping people up and down the country, ensuring that Britain is once again standing tall in the world.

“Speaking with clarity and authority, from Ukraine to the Aukus pact with America and Australia, because we are one whole and entire United Kingdom, whose diplomat security services and armed forces are so globally admired.

“And by the way… as I leave, I believe our union is so strong that those who want to break it up, they’ll keep trying, but they will never, ever succeed.”

7.58am

During his speech, Mr Johnson told his Tory colleagues “it’s time for politics to be over, folks”.

He said: “This is a tough time for the economy. This is a tough time for families up and down the country.

“We can and we will get through it, and we will come out stronger the other side.

“But I say to my fellow Conservatives, it’s time for politics to be over, folks.

“It’s time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her team, and her programme, and deliver for the people of this country. Because that is what the people of this country want. That’s what they need. And that’s what they deserve.”

7.55am

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said Mr Johnson was listing “imaginary achievements” in his resignation speech, describing him as “the worst Prime Minister of the modern era”.

7.52am

Liz Truss becomes PM
The Johnsons greet well-wishers as they leave Downing Street (Victoria Jones/PA)

7.50am

The outgoing Prime Minister’s final words were address to the British public: “Above all, thanks to you, to the British people, to the voters, for giving me the chance to serve, all of you who worked so tirelessly together to beat Covid, to put us where we are today.

“Together, we have laid foundations that will stand the test of time, whether by taking back control of our laws or putting in vital new infrastructure, great solid masonry on which we will continue to build together, paving the path of prosperity now and for future generations.

“I will be supporting Liz Truss and the new government every step of the way.”

7.50am

Boris Johnson said if his dog Dilyn and Larry the Downing Street cat can “put behind them their occasional difficulties”, then so can the Tory party.

He said: “Thank you everybody who’s helped look after me and my family over the last three years, including Dilyn the dog.

“I just say to my party if Dilyn and Larry can put behind them their occasional difficulties, then so can the Conservative Party.

7.48am

Boris Johnson emphasised the early delivery of weapons to Ukraine and the economic support offered to the public, saying his successor would “get people through this crisis”.

He said the “early supplies of weapons to the heroic Ukrainian Armed Forces” may “very well have helped change the course of the biggest European war of 80 years”.

He praised his Government for getting “this economy moving again from July last year despite all the opposition”, saying it meant that “we have and will continue to have that economic strength to give people the cash they need to get through this energy crisis that has been caused by Putin’s vicious war”.

Mr Johnson also said: “I know that Liz Truss and this compassionate Conservative government will do everything we can to get people through this crisis and this country will endure it.

“And if Putin thinks that he can succeed by blackmailing or bullying the British people, then he is utterly deluded.”

7.45am

Liz Truss becomes PM
Carrie Johnson listened to her husband’s final speech as PM before they were driven out of Downing Street (Victoria Jones/PA)

7.42am

Mr Johnson celebrated the success of the vaccines rollout as he delivered his final speech from No 10 as Prime Minister.

Liz Truss becomes PM
Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

He said: “Through that lacquered black door, a new prime minister will shortly go to meet a fantastic group of public servants.

“The people who got Brexit done. The people who delivered the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, and never forget 70% of the entire population got a dose within six months – faster than any comparable country. That is government for you. That’s this Conservative government.”

7.40am

Those who had gathered to watch Mr Johnson’s farewell speech at Downing Street broke into cheers as he finished his address.

Mr Johnson held his wife Carrie’s hand and shook hands with some of those gathered as he left the street, to applause.

7.39am

As soon as Boris Johnson began his speech, protesters began playing “Bye Bye Boris” from Kings Charles Street, which runs parallel to Downing Street.

The song is a remix of Bye Bye Baby, which anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray and his supporters often play during their protests.

Others could be heard shouting from Whitehall.

7.37am

Boris Johnson said he would be offering “fervent support” to Liz Truss’ government during a “tough time” for households across the country.

Tory MPs and officials who had gathered at Downing Street to watch the outgoing Prime Minister’s speech laughed as he compared himself to a “booster rocket” splashing down to earth having done his job as he resigned his post.

7.34am

As he kicked off his valedictory speech in Downing Street, Mr Johnson said: “This is it folks. Thank you everybody for coming out so early this morning.

“In only a couple of hours I will be in Balmoral to see Her Majesty the Queen and the torch will finally be passed to a new Conservative leader.

“The baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race. They changed the rules halfway through, but never mind that now.”

7.33am

Boris Johnson said “this is it, folks” as he gave his final speech as Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street, highlighting his government’s record on Brexit, supporting Ukraine and the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

7.30am

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke said “obsessing” about Liz Truss’s margin of victory is “to miss the point”.

He told Times Radio it “makes no difference to the ultimate outcome” whether she won by “one vote or a million”.

Conservative leadership election: how result of membership ballot compares
(PA Graphics)

Mr Clarke suggested the fact Mr Truss’s final share of the vote was lower than polling of Tory members forecast in early August was because she “consciously made a decision” ahead of the result to prepare for taking office rather than forcing her campaign.

“I think winning most elections by 57% is regarded as a good outcome,” he said, adding that Ms Truss now has a “very clear mandate” to get on with the business of governing.

He added: “Obsessing about the margin of victory is to miss the point. Liz has won. She’s won comfortably. Everyone is quite rightly emphasising that now is the time for the Conservative Party to come together and to get behind her leadership, to govern in the national interest.”

7.25am

A crowd of MPs and political staff and officials has gathered at either side of the door to Number 10 in anticipation of Mr Johnson’s resignation speech shortly.

7.22am

Another face missing from the future Truss cabinet will be Priti Patel who has quit as Home Secretary.

In her resignation letter to Boris Johnson on Monday, Ms Patel said it was her “choice” to continue her public service from the backbenches, when Ms Truss formally takes up her post as prime minister on Tuesday.

While she pledged her support for the new leader, Ms Patel said it was “vital” that she continued to support the policies she had pursued to tackle illegal immigration – including the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda.

“It has been the honour of my life to serve as Home Secretary for the last three years,” she tweeted.

7.18am

Nadine Dorries and Rachel Johnson arrive at 10 Downing Street
Nadine Dorries arrive at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday morning with the Prime Minister’s sister Rachel Johnson (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

One Cabinet member not expected to take up a roll in the new Truss administration is Nadine Dorries.

While the Culture Secretary had been tipped to keep the position after offering strong backing for Ms Truss doing the leadership campaign, Ms Dorries has announced she is standing down and returning to the backbenches.

It is expected that she will now be given a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list, triggering a by-election in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

7.12am

A number of key allies and supporters have already been pencilled in for some of the most senior roles in Liz Truss’s cabinet which should begin to formed later on Tuesday, including Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng who is widely expected to be given the crucial role of chancellor.

If confirmed he will have the task of delivering on her promised “bold” plan to deal with surging energy bills which have plunged households and businesses into crisis.

Other key appointments are expected to include Attorney General Suella Braverman, who is tipped for promotion to home secretary, and Education Secretary James Cleverly, who is expected to be the new foreign secretary.

Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary who is described as Ms Truss’s closest friend at Westminster, is thought to be in line to become health secretary while Ben Wallace is expected to remain as Defence Secretary.

7.05am

Liz Truss becomes PM
A lectern is placed outside 10 Downing Street (Stefan Rousseau/P)A

The lectern bearing the crest of state has been brought out to the front of Downing Street ahead of Boris Johnson’s farewell speech of his premiership.

7.02am

Media gather outside 10 Downing Street
Media gather outside 10 Downing Street ahead of Boris Johnson’s departure (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

7am

Under normal circumstances, the pomp and drama of the royal appointment is mostly confined to London over the course of an afternoon, with the outgoing premier making a statement outside No 10 before a short car ride to Buckingham Palace.

But this time, the departing and incoming prime ministers will both have to make the 500-mile journey to the Queen’s Aberdeenshire retreat.

Mr Johnson is expected to leave Downing Street for the last time after his farewell address at 7.30am.

The Queen welcomed newly elected leader of the Conservative Party Boris Johnson on July 24 2019 (PA)
The Queen welcomed newly elected leader of the Conservative Party Boris Johnson on July 24 2019 (PA)

Mr Johnson and Ms Truss are expected to fly to Aberdeen on separate planes, with the current Prime Minister expected to arrive at the door of Balmoral Castle at 11.20am to formally tender his resignation.

Once he has left, the new Tory leader will be invited in.

Ms Truss is due to arrive at Balmoral at 12.10pm, when she will be appointed prime minister and asked to form an administration.

After around 30 minutes with the Queen, Ms Truss is expected to fly back to London and arrive at Downing Street to address the nation for the first time as PM at around 4pm.