Queen to miss Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow

Monarch, 95, was due to attend evening reception but will send video message instead.

The Queen has pulled out of hosting a major reception for world leaders at the Cop26 climate change summit, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

The 95-year-old monarch was due to travel to Scotland for the high-profile engagement on Monday 1 November.

Buckingham Palace said the monarch had “regretfully decided” not to attend the event. A Palace spokesperson added: “Her Majesty is disappointed not to attend the reception but will deliver an address to the assembled delegates via a recorded video message.”

On 20 October the Queen had preliminary tests in hospital during her first overnight stay at a medical facility in eight years.

She has been resting following medical advice to cancel her two-day trip to Northern Ireland.

However, today she carried out virtual audiences from Windsor Castle, her first official engagements in seven days since being ordered to rest by doctors. It is the first time the 95-year-old head of state has been seen, albeit on a computer screen, since she hosted a busy evening reception for the global investment summit on 19 October.

She was wearing a yellow dress and her three-strand pearl necklace and was seen smiling during the audiences on Tuesday. She was pictured on a computer screen as she greeted the South Korean ambassador to the UK, Kim Gunn.

She had a busy schedule of engagements in the first weeks of October after her return from Balmoral, and her hospital stay was kept a secret and confirmed by the palace only when it was revealed by the Sun newspaper.

The Queen was seen using a walking stick for the first time during a Westminster Abbey service on 12 October.

On 21 October, she was said to be in “good spirits” after her hospital stay and back at her desk, undertaking light duties. But she missed a church service at Windsor on Sunday.

Royal sources had briefed the Sunday Times that the Queen was “knackered” owing to a busy social life and her preference for late-night television, as well as having a hectic run of engagements in October.

Buckingham Palace would not comment on whether the monarch had received her booster Covid-19 jab, but given her age it is likely she has.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will speak to the Queen this evening before his budget tomorrow, a tradition dating back some years. The Queen is also expected to carry out light engagements in the coming days.

 

Story first published on The Guardian 

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Author: 
Jane Clinton, The Guardian