Keir Starmer at Balmoral: King Charles hosts prime minister at castle

Sir Keir Starmer is at Balmoral this weekend, enjoying his first official stay at the royal residence as prime minister.

King Charles III is hosting Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer, in line with a long-held tradition that UK prime ministers visit the monarch at the Scottish castle for a few days towards the end of summer.

Fellow Labour prime minister Harold Wilson, Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher and Sir Keir’s predecessor Rishi Sunak all did the same during their premierships.

Balmoral, which has been the Royal Family’s Scottish holiday home since the 19th Century, is known to many as the place where the late Queen Elizabeth II died.

Her love for the castle, which sits on a 50,000-acre country estate in Aberdeenshire, was well known.

It is a working estate, including grouse moors, forestry and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, and ponies.

The late monarch’s long reign meant she hosted a number of prime ministers at Balmoral, including Mr Wilson, Sir Edward Heath, David Cameron, Baroness Thatcher and Theresa May.

It was also where she appointed her 15th and final prime minister, Liz Truss, two days before her death in 2022.

Mrs May once shared a story about a picnic that had taken place during one of her stays at Balmoral while prime minister.

She explained how she had dropped some cheese on the floor and, hoping no-one had seen, put it back on a plate.

“I turned around to see that my every move had been watched very carefully by Her Majesty the Queen,” Mrs May recalled of the moment. “I looked at her, she looked at me and she just smiled.”

Little detail about Sir Keir’s visit to Balmoral has been shared by either No 10 or the Royal Family.

The trips tend to take place shortly before MPs return from their summer recess – with this year’s recess due to end on Monday.

When Parliament is sitting, the King and prime minister meet for a private weekly audience to discuss government matters.

While the King is politically neutral, he is, according to the Royal Family’s website, “able to ‘advise and warn’ his ministers – including his prime minister – when necessary”.