Queen advised to rest by her doctors

The Queen has postponed a privy council meeting after a ‘full day’ in which she personally accepted Boris Johnson’s resignation and Liz Truss as his replacement at Balmoral.

Photographs of the Queen taken when she met new PM Liz Truss showed she had a bruise on her right hand but this is thought to be a benign condition of old age.

The Queen has postponed a meeting of the privy council on the advice of her doctors, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday night.

A spokesman suggested it was the result of her “full day” on Tuesday, when she received both the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and accepted Liz Truss as his replacement.

“After a full day yesterday, Her Majesty has this afternoon accepted doctors’ advice to rest,” a spokesman said. “This means the privy council meeting that had been due to take place this evening will be rearranged.”

A royal source said there would be “no running commentary” on the Queen’s health. She is understood to be remaining at Balmoral and has not been advised to go to hospital.

The Queen had not intended to travel for the meeting, which was to be held virtually on Wednesday.

The monarch, who turned 96 in April, appeared smiling in photographs on Tuesday as she prepared to meet Mr Johnson and Ms Truss in her private drawing room at Balmoral.

The Queen’s schedule on Tuesday involved Mr Johnson arriving at 11.16am and leaving 39 minutes later. Ms Truss arrived at 12.22pm and stayed for 33 minutes.

The privy council meeting would have involved Ms Truss taking her oath as first lord of the Treasury.

New cabinet ministers would have been sworn into their roles and made privy counsellors if they had not been appointed in the past.

The Court Circular also recorded a further meeting in which she invested Donal McCabe, her communications secretary, with the insignia of a lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, an honour reserved for people who have served the royal family.

There have been reports of regular morning visits by the Prince of Wales, who attended the Braemar Gathering, part of the Highland games circuit, in Aberdeenshire last weekend without the Queen.

The Queen is not thought to have previously cancelled a privy council meeting at short notice although officials may have scheduled them to avoid other instances of ill health.

Outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson arrives to formally resign in a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Photographs of the Queen taken on Tuesday showed she had a bruise on her right hand but this is thought to be a benign condition of old age.

The Queen has benefited from robust health throughout her reign with only a handful of stays in hospital.

She was last admitted to hospital on October 20, 2021, when she visited in the afternoon and was kept overnight “for some preliminary investigations”.

She was said to have returned from King Edward VII hospital to Windsor Castle at lunchtime the following day “in good spirits”, being back at her desk by the afternoon and undertaking light duties. In 2018 she was treated for cataracts but did not stay overnight.

Both the Queen and the late Duke of Edinburgh were known for their wish to carry on unless doctors considered rest necessary.

The monarch’s pain threshold appeared to be high when, in 1994, she and her horse fell at Sandringham and she broke her wrist. She assumed that the injury was a bruise and it was only identified as a break the following day.

– The Times