The King and Sir Keir: Charles’ encounters with his incoming PM

Sir Keir Starmer is to become the third prime minister – and the first Labour one – of the King’s reign.

Charles’s initial premier was Liz Truss, who was already in place when he became monarch in September 2022, but her stint in charge was the shortest in British history.

The King then welcomed Rishi Sunak as his second PM – also a Conservative – in October the same year, just six weeks after acceding to the throne.

When the King meets Sir Keir at Buckingham Palace on Friday to invite him to form a new government, it will be the first time Charles has appointed a prime minister following a general election.

The pair have met on numerous occasions before, and appear to have a warm rapport.

They were seen engrossed in conversation at a reception in St James’s Palace before the Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2023, and photographed exchanging friendly greetings in the aftermath of the late Queen’s death.

Sir Keir attended an audience between Charles and opposition leaders just two days after Elizabeth II died.

The King and the Labour leader mirrored each other’s gestures, both smiling and placing a hand on the other’s arm as they greeted one another in the Palace’s 1844 Room.

In 2021, footage surfaced showing the then-human rights barrister telling a film-maker in 2005: “I also got made a Queen’s Counsel which is odd, since I often used to propose the abolition of the monarchy.”

But when Elizabeth II died, he paid a warm tribute, saying in the Commons: “For the 70 glorious years of her reign, our Queen was at the heart of this nation’s life.

“She did not simply reign over us, she lived alongside us, she shared in our hopes and our fears, our joy, and our pain. Our good times and our bad.”

He also spoke of the King’s new reign, praising Charles’s social and eco-credentials.

“King Charles III has been a devoted servant of this country his entire life, he has been a powerful voice for fairness, and understood the importance of the environment long before many others,” Sir Keir said.

“As he ascends to his new role with the Queen Consort by his side, the whole House, indeed, the whole country, will join today to wish him a long, happy and successful reign.”

Historian Ed Owens told the New York Times: “A Labour government under Keir Starmer will be more attuned to the plight of people as a social issue.

“These kinds of issues have long been on the radar of the King. There’s a meeting of minds in terms of the social issues at stake.”

Sir Keir was present at Elizabeth II’s funeral, the King’s accession council and his coronation, and he has also been a member of the Privy Council since 2017.

He joined the royal family in the royal box to watch the Platinum Jubilee Pageant celebrations in 2022.

The former director of public prosecutions was knighted by Charles, then the Prince of Wales, in 2014.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath during an investiture ceremony in the Palace ballroom for services to law and criminal justice.

As Labour leader, he attended the King’s white tie banquets at the Palace, for the Japanese, South Korean and South African state visits.

After an audience on Friday where he will be invited by the King to form a new government and become prime minister, the Court Circular will record that he kissed hands on appointment.

But in reality it will be a handshake.

An incoming male premier will also usually bow and a female premier curtsy, if they choose to do so.

The actual kissing of hands now usually takes place later at a Privy Council meeting.

Sir Tony Blair recalled in his autobiography how he was told just before his audience after his landslide 1997 election by a tall official with a stick: “You don’t actually kiss the Queen’s hands in the ceremony of kissing hands. You brush them gently with your lips.”

In the end, he recounted how he tripped on a piece of the carpet and “practically fell upon the Queen’s hands, not so much brushing as enveloping them”.

More than a decade later in 2010, the incoming PM David Cameron took the late Queen’s hand, but did not kiss it or kneel, before being asked if he could form a government.

As the new PM, Sir Keir will meet the King each Wednesday for a private weekly audience to discuss Government matters following Prime Minister’s Questions, with the conversation usually taking place face to face.

Although the King must remain politically neutral on all matters, he is able to advise and warn his ministers – including his prime minister – when necessary.