Queen, 96, pulls out of attending Highland Games this weekend

The Queen will not attend the Braemar Gathering this weekend, with royal sources saying the decision has been taken ‘for her comfort’ – although Prince Charles who normally accompanies her will still be there.

The late announcement comes after the Mail on Sunday reported last weekend that Her Majesty had been ‘carefully considering’ whether she was fit enough to attend the event as concerns grow over her mobility issues.

The Highland Games, which are often attended by the Queen and the prime minister of the day, are usually a highlight in the monarch’s calendar. They are held at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park in Braemar.

But royal sources confirmed today that there were two main issues in terms of the Queen’s attendance – firstly getting her to the games, but also that she would have to sit in public for a long period of time to watch them.

The Games are classed as a ‘private’ event in Her Majesty’s calendar and not a public engagement. It is understood that the 96-year-old monarch had originally hoped she would be at the event which begins tomorrow.

Until now, the Queen has never missed the Highland Games during her 70-year reign, following a tradition of the monarch attending which was started by Queen Victoria 174 years ago in 1848. The event is held a short distance from where Her Majesty is staying on her annual summer at the Balmoral Castle estate in Aberdeenshire.

This year’s competition – which will see contestants battle it out in caber-tossing and tug-of-war in front of spectators and can be watched live on an official stream – is the first to be held since the start of the pandemic.

The decision will prompt fresh concerns about the Queen’s health, just two days after Buckingham Palace said she would remain in Scotland to appoint a new prime minister at Balmoral for the first time in her reign.

The Queen is pictured arriving for her summer holiday at Balmoral Castle on July 21 – the last time she was photographed

The Queen opens a new building at Thames Hospice in Maidenhead, Berkshire, on July 15, 2022 (left); and attends an Armed Forces Act of Loyalty Parade at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on June 28 (right)

The Royal Box at the Braemar Gathering games field in the Highlands is pictured being prepared by workers yesterday

The monarch traditionally holds audiences with outgoing and incoming premiers at Buckingham Palace.

But Boris Johnson, who will tender his resignation, and the new Conservative Party leader who will be asked to form a government – either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak – will travel to Balmoral Castle – a 1,000-mile round trip – for the key audiences next Tuesday instead.

How the Queen’s health has been scrutinised

The Queen’s health has been scrutinised over the past year, with the monarch having to pull out of key events due to ongoing mobility issues.

She thrilled crowds on the first day of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations on June 2 when she appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony and later at Windsor Castle.

But the next day she pulled out of the Platinum Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral after experiencing ‘discomfort’ during the previous day’s celebrations. The decision was considered regrettable, it is understood, but sensible due to the length of the journey and time involved and the physical demands the event would have required.

While she made a number of in-person visits in the weeks leading up to her Jubilee celebrations, including a surprise visit to open the Elizabeth line and to tour the Chelsea Flower Show using a golf buggy, the Queen has faced ongoing ‘episodic mobility problems’ stretching back to last autumn and now uses a walking stick.

In October 2021, she used a walking stick at a Westminster Abbey service – the first time she had done so at a major engagement. A week later, after a busy autumn programme, she was ordered to rest by her doctors and advised to cancel a trip to Northern Ireland.

The Queen was secretly admitted to hospital for ‘preliminary investigations’ and had her first overnight stay in hospital for eight years on October 20, 2021. The next day she was back at her desk at Windsor, carrying out light duties.

But concern for her health mounted when she pulled out of more high-profile engagements, including the Cop26 climate change summit and the Festival of Remembrance, with Buckingham Palace saying she had been advised to continue to rest and not carry out any official visits. She was intent on attending the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph, but missed this due to a sprained back.

For more than three months she carried out only light duties, including virtual and face-to-face audiences in the confines of Windsor Castle.

In February 2022, she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, meeting charity workers at Sandringham House and cutting a Jubilee cake in what was her largest in-person public engagement since October.

Many of her duties are now carried out via video calls, and the country’s longest-reigning sovereign remarked during a in-person audience in February: ‘Well, as you can see, I can’t move.’

There were fears for her health when she caught Covid, testing positive on February 20, 2022. The triple-vaccinated Queen suffered from mild cold-like symptoms but said the virus left her ‘very tired and exhausted’. She carried on with light duties while self-isolating at Windsor but cancelled some virtual audiences.

She pulled out of the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March, a significant date in the royal calendar given the importance to her of the family of nations, and did not attend the Maundy Thursday service. But she rallied to honour the Duke of Edinburgh at a memorial service at the end of March, walking slowly and carefully with the aid of a stick, and holding on to the Duke of York’s elbow for support.

In May 2022, she missed the State Opening of Parliament for the first time in nearly 60 years, with Buckingham Palace attributing her absence to ‘episodic mobility problems’. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge opened parliament on her behalf as Counsellors of State, with Charles reading the Queen’s Speech for a historic first time.

Much has changed in the past seven months, with Buckingham Palace mostly only confirming the Queen’s attendance at engagements on the day, with the decision dependent on how she is feeling in the morning. She did go to the Windsor Horse Show in May and she was also the guest of honour at the equestrian extravaganza A Gallop Through History near Windsor, the first major event of the Jubilee festivities.

She also made a surprise appearance to officially open the Elizabeth line at Paddington Station, looking bright and cheery, though her visit was limited to 10 minutes. She also turned up at the Chelsea Flower Show and was driven around the floral extravaganza in her new hi-tech golf buggy for her comfort.

It is believed to be the first time in the monarch’s 70 years on the throne that she has conducted the historic duty away from Buckingham Palace.

In 1963, Harold Macmillan resigned as PM while recovering from surgery. His private secretary went to the Palace and afterwards the Queen visited Mr Macmillan in hospital in London, but his successor, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was appointed at Buckingham Palace.

One hundred and 14 years ago, the Queen’s great-grandfather, Edward VII, was on holiday and refused to interrupt his plans to appoint a new prime minister.

Herbert Asquith was forced to travel to Biarritz in the south of France in 1908, where the King asked him to form a government during an audience in a hotel room.

The Queen, who celebrated her Platinum Jubilee this year, is on her traditional summer break in the Scottish Highlands, but has faced health issues since last autumn.

She now regularly uses a walking stick, but rallied to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony for her Jubilee.

Her traditional welcome to Balmoral Castle earlier in August was held privately for her ‘comfort’.

A Palace spokesman confirmed the decision over the Prime Minister audiences on Wednesday and it is understood it was taken at this stage in order to provide certainty for the Prime Minister’s diary.

If the Queen had experienced an episodic mobility issue next week and the plan had been to travel to London or Windsor, it would have led to alternative arrangements at the last minute.

The Sun reported at the weekend that the Prince of Wales had been making regular morning visits to see his mother as she continues to struggle with her mobility, with the unplanned visits considered highly unusual.

Former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt 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.

‘Despite this, the Queen remains determined to carry out her core duties.

‘Appointing a new prime minister is not something that can easily be passed to Prince Charles, a king-in-waiting.’

Buckingham Palace declined to give an ongoing commentary on the monarch’s health.

The audiences 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.

Mr Johnson said arrangements for the handover to the new prime minister will be down to the Queen and ‘fit totally around her and whatever she wants’.

The politician told reporters during a visit to Barrow-in-Furness: ‘I don’t talk about my conversations with the Queen, no prime minister ever does.’

In 2019, after a private audience with the Queen in which he accepted her invitation to form a government and become PM, Mr Johnson revealed to a reporter that the monarch had quipped: ‘I don’t know why anyone would want the job.’

The Queen will also hold a virtual Privy Council meeting the following day, rather than an in-person one, where the new PM will be sworn in as First Lord of the Treasury among other business.

During her Jubilee celebrations, the Queen only travelled to Buckingham Palace twice – first for her Trooping the Colour balcony appearance and then for a finale after the pageant.

She spends most of her time at Windsor Castle, 22 miles from central London, living there during the pandemic and while major renovations take place at Buckingham Palace.

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.

Either Ms Truss or Mr Sunak will be the 15th prime minister of the Queen’s reign.

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.

The Lonach Pipe Band march through Braemar during a scaled-back Braemar Gathering due to Covid on September 4, 2021

THe Queen with Prince Charles, Camilla, Autumn Phillips and Peter Phillips at the Braemar Gathering on September 7, 2019

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip laugh as they watch the games during the Braemar Gathering on September 6, 2008

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