Familiar British Ritual Now Features Two New Participants

For the lifetime of most people in Britain, the pattern has stayed the same.

The old prime minister would meet with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, followed almost immediately by the new one. In 2016, according to a briefing by Parliament’s library, Theresa May’s car passed through the palace gates 32 seconds after David Cameron’s had left.

New prime ministers typically arrive in their own car and leave in an official one. In between, the queen would ask them to form a government — a relic of the long-ago days when British monarchs could appoint prime ministers by their own choice rather than at the will of Parliament. The ceremony is known as “kissing hands,” although no hands are kissed.

In more recent years, there has also been an added gesture to mark departing prime ministers’ transition from public life to private: Their partners and children were invited to meet the queen.

By the time Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson in early September, the queen was already too frail to leave Balmoral Castle in Scotland. So the politicians had to come to her. Rather than two short car rides across central London, the handover involved coordinating flights in rough weather.

Now, the rites have returned to London, and the monarch is King Charles III. In one way, he is encountering this ritual unusually quickly: Elizabeth was queen for more than three years before bidding farewell to Churchill and welcoming the second of her 15 British prime ministers, Anthony Eden.

In another way, however, Charles served an exceptionally extended apprenticeship, remaining as designated successor for longer than anyone else in the history of the British monarchy. He took on an increasing share of his mother’s duties in her final months, including at the formal opening of Parliament.

After the initial meeting, the prime minister has a weekly audience with the monarch, conversations that are confidential but often speculated about. Queen Elizabeth’s were the subject of a West End play that transferred to Broadway in 2015.

Any future drama about King Charles is liable to quote a widely shared video in which he was shown greeting Ms. Truss at a weekly audience with a jovial “Dear, oh dear.” A person close to the Palace said it was not a criticism of her troubled tenure but an expression of sympathy during a packed schedule; they had both been at a separate meeting earlier that day.

Still, Charles may be hoping to create a less memorable scene in his meetings with Rishi Sunak.

 

 

In Parliament, three former prime ministers will be looking over Sunak’s shoulder.

 

As Rishi Sunak begins his new job this week, he will face the striking dynamic of having three former prime ministers, all of whom served in the last three years, looking over his shoulder from his party’s backbenches in Parliament.

The sight of so many former leaders in Parliament offers a tableau of the Conservative Party’s inner turmoil, and the upheaval it has caused in Britain’s governing system. It also creates a strange working environment for Mr. Sunak as he becomes the latest party member to take the reins.

Having a former head of government continuing to serve as an active lawmaker may seem odd to those more accustomed to presidential systems — in which former leaders typically have no role in government once their term in office ends — but it’s a common feature of Parliaments the world over.

In a parliamentary system, the party leader who can control a majority of lawmakers’ votes becomes prime minister. The leader must also be a member of Parliament — and does not automatically lose that seat upon ceasing to be prime minister.

Unless she or he is unseated in a public election or chooses to move on from politics, a British prime minister returns to the regular role as representative of a parliamentary constituency.

Mr. Sunak served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Boris Johnson before pointedly quitting as chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain’s top financial official — a move that set off a rebellion that would eventually lead to Mr. Johnson’s resignation. Now, Mr. Johnson, who remains a member of Parliament representing an area of outer London, will have a close-up view of Mr. Sunak’s tenure from the benches behind him, alongside Liz Truss, who vowed in her resignation speech on Tuesday to continue serving her rural constituency of South West Norfolk.

It is not uncommon for former prime ministers to continue serving in Parliament: Edward Heath, who left Downing Street in 1974, stayed in the House of Commons until 2001. But having so many recently departed leaders from the governing Conservative Party has created some striking scenes.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May denounced Boris Johnson’s behavior during the coronavirus pandemic from two rows behind him in Parliament. She also memorably refrained from clapping alongside her Conservative colleagues during his final question-and-answer session as prime minister.

Mr. Johnson, who was replaced by Ms. Truss after his resignation this summer, was noticeably absent during much of his successor’s short term in office. But he delivered a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II the day after the monarch’s death, while seated just two spots away from Mrs. May.