Former British Prime Minister Theresa May has said the Queen was a “thoughtful hostess” during weekends at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, recalling stories from their time together at the estate.
May said the Queen “wanted all her guests to enjoy themselves,”
“She would take an interest in what books were put in your room. And she didn’t always expect to be the center of attention. she was quite happy to sit sometimes playing her form of patience while others were mingling around her,” May said.
She recalled the Queen driving May and her husband around the Balmoral estate, which she said Philip May likened to being in a dream.
“Her Majesty loved the countryside, and she was down to earth and a woman of common sense,” the former leader said.
May recalled a picnic at Balmoral, during which she dropped some cheese on the ground, before attempting to sneakily pick it up, dust it off, and place it back on the table.
“I turned around to see that my every move had been watched very carefully by Her Majesty the Queen. I looked at her, she looked at me, and she just smiled. And the cheese remained on the table,” May said, to laughs in the Commons.
May served as Prime Minister from 2016 to 2019, in the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
She also recalled her weekly audiences with the Queen, which the monarch held with every Prime Minister throughout her reign. “These were not meetings with a high and mighty monarch, but a conversation with a woman of experience and knowledge, and immense wisdom,” May said.
“They were also the one meeting I went to which I knew would not be briefed out to the media,” she joked, to an eruption of laughter.
“What made those audiences so special was the understanding the Queen had of issues … she knew many of the world leaders. In some cases, she had known their fathers.”
“Yesterday was a day that we all knew would come some time, but in our hearts of hearts, we hoped never would,” May said in the House of Commons.
“Queen Elizabeth II was quite simply the most remarkable person I have ever met,” she added.