King welcomes Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to palace in revival of royal convention

Conservative person Kemi Badenoch has held a one-to-one assemblage with the King – reviving an aged normal of the monarch gathering with the caller person of the Opposition.

Charles welcomed Mrs Badenoch successful the expansive 1844 Room of Buckingham Palace connected Monday morning.

Mrs Badenoch, who was elected Tory person successful November, was pictured grinning arsenic the smiling King gestured and held his arms retired wide astatine the commencement of their half-hour meeting.

She is said to beryllium the archetypal absorption person to person a ceremonial one-to-one assemblage with a monarch successful 19 years.

A royal root said: “It was a normal that fell by the mode successful second years of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s reign and seemed a courtesy to revive successful the caller reign.”

It is not known wherefore the contented lapsed during Labour’s years successful opposition.

The past Opposition person to beryllium welcomed successful a ceremonial assemblage successful the months aft their assignment was David Cameron, erstwhile helium met with the precocious Queen successful 2006.

Mrs Badenoch, the North West Essex MP and erstwhile commercialized secretary, replaced Rishi Sunak successful the aftermath of the party’s disastrous decision successful the summertime wide election.

Known for her forthright views connected issues specified arsenic sex individuality and organization racism, Mrs Badenoch has described herself arsenic a “sceptic” of nett zero and is known for her anti-woke values.

She is the archetypal achromatic pistillate to pb a large UK governmental party.

The King and Mrs Badenoch person met respective times before, astir precocious astatine Charles’s post-election reception for MPs astatine the palace past week, and besides successful June 2023 astatine a King’s Award for Enterprise reception, erstwhile Mrs Badenoch was commercialized secretary.

Sir Keir Starmer met with Charles 2 days aft Elizabeth II died, but the assemblage with the Labour person was a associated 1 with different absorption leaders and portion of the planned docket of meetings successful the aftermath of the Queen’s death.

The King holds a backstage play assemblage with the Prime Minister each Wednesday to sermon Government matters pursuing Prime Minister’s Questions, with the speech usually taking spot face-to-face.

Although the King must remain politically neutral on each matters, helium is capable to advise and warn his ministers – including his premier curate – erstwhile necessary.