Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne during the tenures of 15 Prime Ministers and spent plenty of time with them all, both in public and in private. As monarch, the late Queen, like King Charles does now, held private weekly audiences with the politicians, in which she would be kept up to date with everything she needed to know.
While many believe that the late Queen had the best bond with her first Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, this claim has now been challenged. Instead, Power and the Palace – a new book from former royal correspondent Valentine Low – has suggested that one of the Prime Ministers the late Queen got on with the best was Sir John Major.
Major was Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative party from 1990 to 1997 and is believed to have had a good relationship with Her Late Majesty.
Low claims that the late Queen’s relationship with Major was “one of the most positive relationships with a Prime Minister of her entire reign”.
Low also claimed that the late Queen even invited Major to the palace for private conversations long after he had left office.
In 1999, Queen Elizabeth then put Major on her New Year Honours List, where he was appointed a Order of the Companions of Honour for his work on the Northern Ireland peace process.
In 2005, he was then given a knighthood by the late Queen and was made a Knight of the Garter – Britain’s highest chivalric honour.
It is believed Major had a good relationship with Queen Elizabeth II throughout her life right until her 2022 death.
In a statement not long after her death, Major described her as “selfless and wise, with a wonderful generosity of spirit”.
He was then among other ex-Prime Ministers who attended her funeral service at Westminster Abbey.