Queen Elizabeth was pleased that Boris Johnson wouldn’t organize her funeral

In 2019, then-Prince Minister Boris Johnson created a scheme to ram Brexit through. His plot involved convincing Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue the government, basically shut down Parliament and tell everyone to go home. The situation was so politically unpopular and BoJo’s scheme was so unhinged, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled (months later) that the whole thing was unconstitutional and that BoJo lied to QEII when he convinced her to prorogue. Well, there’s a new book coming out about all of this – Out by Tim Shipman. The Times had excerpts from it and much of it is about BoJo’s scheme and how it fell apart. But there are some interesting stories about how QEII felt about BoJo, and how much Prince William and then-Prince Charles hated him too. Some highlights:

When the Supreme Court called the prorogue unconstitutional: The most awkward moment for Johnson came when he had to phone the Queen. After the verdict John Major, who helped bring the Supreme Court case and had been an adviser to Princes William and Harry, urged the prime minister to make an “unreserved apology” to the monarch: “No prime minister can ever treat the Queen this way.” Major reflected undiluted fury among senior members of the royal family and courtiers in the royal household about Johnson’s behaviour. “John Major is very, very close to the Queen,” said a Tory source with close links to senior royals. “The Queen has to do what she is told to do by the prime minister, but they did not want to prorogue parliament in these circumstances. Nobody trusts Boris.”

QEII’s punishment: The source said Johnson would never receive the order of the garter, the traditional honour for retired prime ministers, while the Queen was alive. The Queen’s reaction was actually more sanguine than some. She thought Johnson a roguish and comic figure and took the disaster in her stride. One senior royal aide characterised her approach as, “These things happen”.

Charles & William were pissed: The anger on the monarch’s behalf, however, from the Prince of Wales in particular, was intense. “Charles was absolutely furious,” a royal insider said. “He was outraged that Boris should treat the Queen like that. She wouldn’t ever say anything, but he was pretty robust in private.” The anger was shared by Prince William, whose private secretary was Simon Case, who had previously been in No 10. “I think that Simon Case wound William up,” a senior civil servant said.
Constitutionally, the Queen had no choice but to accept Johnson’s request to prorogue. But William’s aides let it be known that in his reign as king there would be “more private, robust challenging of advice” between the monarch and his prime ministers.

BoJo accused Charles of further interference: Further tensions between Charles and Johnson followed over his government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which Charles thought “appalling”. He feared it would mar the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Rwandan capital Kigali. At the summit Johnson privately took the heir to the throne to task for “sh–bagging” his flagship plan. “Did you actually criticise government policy?” he asked. Johnson told an aide that Charles replied: “Well maybe, inadvertently, without intention I may have said something.”

Charles also wanted to speak about Black Lives Matter: Charles revealed that he wanted to respond to the widespread fury about colonialism unleashed by the Black Lives Matter campaign, by acknowledging the evils of slavery. Johnson, despairing that even the monarchy had been captured by “woke” ideology, was blunt: “I wouldn’t talk about slavery if I were you, or you’ll end up having to sell the Duchy of Cornwall to pay reparations to the people who built the Duchy of Cornwall.” When Johnson emerged from this encounter he told Guto Harri, his director of communications, “I went in quite hard.”

Boris adored QEII, she did not feel the same way & she didn’t want him to oversee her funeral: Missing the chance to make the speech from the dispatch box by three days was exquisite torture. “He totally adored her,” said one former No 10 adviser. However, a Tory close to the royal household suggested mischievously that “Her Majesty wanted to hang on long enough to see Boris off the premises”. The courtier explained that the Queen’s final days had been happy ones. She had enjoyed a gathering of her family and treasured staff two evenings before her death. The courtier confided that when Boris Johnson was mentioned, the Queen, mischief in her eye, had said: “Well at least I won’t have that idiot organising my funeral now.” This, it seems, was said to amuse but it was a widely shared sentiment in the royal household.

[From The Times]

That part about Boris challenging Charles is the most fascinating part to me – that Boris was pissed about Charles leaking sh-t about Boris’s dumb deportation plan and that implied threats were made about the Duchy of Cornwall. In some sense, they were both right and both wrong. Charles was right to publicly criticize Boris’s deportation plan, but Boris was right to remind Charles that the Windsors sit on a pile of stolen wealth from centuries of slavery and colonization. Now, do we think that QEII managed to hang on so that Boris wouldn’t organize her funeral? Nah. But it’s a little bit funny that everyone at the palace is like “oh, that’s exactly what happened.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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27 Responses to “Queen Elizabeth was pleased that Boris Johnson wouldn’t organize her funeral”

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  1. Amy Bee says:

    The main thing I got out of this is the Queen had no agency and she lived entire her life having other people telling her what to do.

    • Dee(2) says:

      I got that the queen had no agency and wasn’t as incandescent about silly things as her son as grandson seem to be, Charles constantly wants people to know that he was on the right side of history he just was too cowardly to actually do anything, and William spends his time talking about everything that you’re not going to be able to do when he’s King!!

      • Deborah1 says:

        @Dee(2) – Proroguing parliament in order to ram Brexit through was NOT a silly thing! It was a national disgrace carried out by Britain’s most dishonest Prime Minister in history. None of us really knows how QEII felt about this after being lied to by BoJo and agreeing to it under false pretences.

    • Yes I agree she surrounded herself with those that did everything and that I believe was the problem with Harry being able to see her when he wanted to. Chuckles took her secretary away from her and put in place who he wanted and could control. Harry knew she wasn’t protected and was worried about her.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      That @Amy Bee and why would Boris Johnson be the organizer of QE2’s funeral? Operation London Bridge? was planned long before BoJo. Another odd article from the BM.

  2. Inge says:

    “I think that Simon Case wound William up,” a senior civil servant said.

    Ofcourse he did.

    So he went from no10 to W to no10?

  3. somebody says:

    Everybody in this story looks petty and power-obsessed. The royals are supposedly not political, but are angry about not being in control? Why should their unelected selves be in control? And their response to Johnson is to say he won’t be in our club with the silly robes? And QE supposedly wasn’t feeling well enough for pictures when H&M visited with their children, but was lively and gloating about Johnson at a date more toward her death?

  4. ML says:

    Back in the day there were sources who indicated that the royals were pro Brexit. Have they ever emphatically denied that?

    Next, “Further tensions between Charles and Johnson followed over his government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which Charles thought “appalling”. He feared it would mar the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Rwandan capital Kigali.”
    Gross. It’s not using a Nazi template to deport asylum seekers that’s the issue, but how said action appears to the Commonwealth Heads of Government.

    • somebody says:

      Of course. Just like his duchies and money meant more to him than apologizing.

    • Becks1 says:

      Yeah that stood out to me too – and the way Charles completely gave in to Boris – “well maybe inadvertently without intention I may have said something.” Way to have any kind of backbone there Charles.

      Boris’ duchy comments are hilarious to me though because again, he’s calling out Charles’ backbone (or lack thereof.) “if you feel this way about slavery and want to make these comments, be prepared that its going to go down this road regarding your own wealth.” And Charles backed off immediately.

      I’m reading here that charles sort of feels like he wants to make these political comments but has been put off from the comments by Boris or other PMs, and william thinks he’s going to be able to say whatever he wants because he’s not going to be a puppet of the PM or something. Well we’ll see how that plays out.

  5. Brassy Rebel says:

    “I wouldn’t talk about slavery if I were you, or you’ll end up having to sell the Duchy of Cornwall to pay reparations to the people who built the Duchy of Cornwall.” A stopped clock is right twice a day.

    • bisynaptic says:

      It’s somewhat reassuring to know that they really do know what the lay of the land is. It’s not that they’re ignorant, or deluded; it’s that they’re grasping and awful.

  6. Truthiness says:

    I was relieved when Boris wasn’t the PM when QEll died but I also was glad Trump wasn’t President back then either. Trump has boundary issues and he acts like he’s the main character everywhere he goes.

    • Miranda says:

      That tacky-ass boor was still trying to center himself in the events from across the pond! He thought he deserved a place in the US delegation and ranted about how the Americans would’ve had “better seats” if he were there because everybody loved and respected him ever so much.🙄

      I wonder if Camilla will be all gossipy about Trump’s next state visit, like she was about Biden’s. Not that I think she necessarily disagrees with Trump, but she IS a snob.

  7. sevenblue says:

    Charles, who didn’t say a word about the racist attacks against his own daughter in law and grandson and who was worried about how dark H&M’s child would be, wanted to speak up for Black Lives Matter? They really think we are idiots.

  8. Eurydice says:

    If Charles cared about Black Lives Matter so much, he could have treated his daughter-in-law better. No need for sweeping statements or butting heads with the politicians, just show by example.

  9. Hypocrisy says:

    So since none of the “working royals” actually work anymore, proven by their engagement numbers last year, I guess we are going to be getting more made up narratives about QE to fill the tabloid pages. The funeral is over, if anything needs scrutiny or to be looked into it would be the cost of the funeral that the taxpayers funded and maybe how to bring that cost down when the next Monarch dies.

  10. Lilpeppa40 says:

    Well to be fair, they didn’t say Charles agreed with the beliefs and reasons behind the Black Lives Matter movement, they said he wanted to”say something” and “acknowledge the evils of slavery” which is a performative cop out like all those companies that posted black squares on Instagram and made a bunch of loud nothingburger statements but hid diversity numbers and quietly dropped any half baked plans to actually make a difference so… par for the course

  11. BeanieBean says:

    I don’t believe a word of this. I mean, this part, ‘She had enjoyed a gathering of her family and treasured staff two evenings before her death.’ No she didn’t. She was up in Balmoral & died there. Do they forget how they reveled in telling us that they left Harry behind & helicoptered up together? Also, they keep bringing in William’s name as though he were actually paying attention to anything & person of consequence. No, he wasn’t & he isn’t.

  12. Caseysmom says:

    Charles has aged 15 years since these photos in 2021-2022. It’s positively shocking to see.

  13. SarahCS says:

    “He totally adored her,”

    Did he? I’d say he adored the idea of colonialism and empire that was associated with her and a chance at proximity to her. I doubt any of her successors will hold such a place in the minds of the British as she did for a number of reasons, sheer longevity being a key one.

    • Deborah1 says:

      Boris only adores himself. You are absolutely right that he sucked up to the Queen because he is a toady and thinks Britain still has an empire. Another amusing quote from this book by Tim Shipman is that QEII is supposed to have said that Boris was better suited to the stage. QEII had the measure of him.

  14. Lau says:

    She preferred to wait for Liz Truss to be “elected” and then died right away.