After a landslide election victory, Sir Keir Starmer became Britain’s 58th Prime Minister and met King Charles to ‘officially’ be asked to form a new administration.
After the Labour leader received an invitation from The King for a meeting, it is expected that, in line with tradition, he will have another unique honour bestowed upon him in his new capacity.
This sees the Prime Minister, his or her spouse and their children travel north to spend a few days with the Royal Family at Balmoral Castle in Royal Deeside – but this hasn’t always been a trip former residents at Number 10 have looked forward to.
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Following precedent set by previous national leaders, it is anticipated that Starmer and his family will receive an invite to spend a few days of summer with the royals at their beloved Balmoral Estate.
Balmoral Castle was acquired in 1852 by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, from the Farquharson family. It holds great significance in Scotland, due to the late Queen’s notable fondness for it.
However, past PM’s have expressed mixed feelings about their experiences visiting Balmoral. For example, Margaret Thatcher likened her trips there to “purgatory”, while Tony Blair characterised his experience as “a vivid combination of the intriguing, the surreal and the utterly freaky”, reports OK!.
Blair even claimed he only managed to endure the weekend through frequent consumption of stiff drinks.
Interestingly enough, Blair’s youngest child, Leo, was conceived inside the Royal residence after his wife Cherie left behind her contraceptives in London, following the acute embarrassment she felt when staff unpacked her wash bag during their visit the year prior.
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In stark contrast, David Cameron reminisced about the “bliss” of roaming the Aberdeenshire hills sans his security detail. He delved into his Royal connections in his 2019 tell-all ‘For the Record’, admitting he thoroughly “lapped up the Balmoral experience”.
Before his anticipated stay at the Royal residence, Sir Keir is gearing up to take his family into the iconic 10 Downing Street. A snippet from Sky TV’s ‘Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips’ last January sheds light on why Keir and his spouse, Lady Victoria, keep their teenage kids out of the media glare.
The segment revealed Keir’s deep-seated concerns for his children’s privacy with a poignant, six-word plea: “I’m desperately trying to protect them.”
He elaborated on the matter, saying: “Vic, my wife, is my complete support and partner in this… we’ve got two relatively young children it impacts them all the time, every single day. All that I do, I talk through with Vic… I’m not sure she signed up for this… the only thing that worries me is the children. They’re 13 and 15, that’s delicate ages we don’t name them in public, we don’t do photographs… I’m desperately trying to protect them and I do worry about that.”