The King has held an audience with the prime minister at Buckingham Palace – and he opened with a slightly awkward turn of phrase.
Charles met Liz Truss on Wednesday evening, with the pair pictured shaking hands.
Footage of the Buckingham Palace meeting saw the embattled PM curtsy and say: “Your Majesty.”
Charles, smiling, replied: “Back again? Dear oh dear.”
Truss was heard to say: “It’s a great pleasure.”
It’s unclear exactly what the monarch was referring to when he said “dear oh dear”.
But given the financial turmoil that has greeted the Truss premiership it seems likely it was something to do with the market unrest – even if the comment was designed to put help put the PM at ease.
During her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II met with prime ministers for weekly private “audiences” – and the tradition continues under Charles.
Their meeting came after Truss faced prime minister’s questions in parliament, where she insisted she will not cut spending to balance the books as economists and the financial markets continued to question her plans.
At a stormy meeting of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee on Wednesday evening, Truss was savaged by Tory MPs.
One MP described her performance as “crap” while another told HuffPost UK she was “wooden”.