The message that was handed to Liz Truss on the day the Queen died has been revealed

A year ago today, the UK was slowly receiving more and more news around the declining health of the late Queen Elizabeth II before her passing later that day.

One of the key developments came in the House of Commons, when then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Nadhim Zahawi, entered the chamber and quickly passed on a note to then PM, Liz Truss.

Now, reflecting on that day to GB News, Mr Zahawi has revealed exactly what was written on the piece of paper that notified Ms Truss – then just two days into her premiership – that something very serious was happening with Her Majesty.

“The Palace would be putting out a statement, I rushed to the prime minister’s office in parliament to effectively begin to agree with the Palace, a form of words for the prime minister, if the statement was to go out whilst the prime minister was still in the chamber.

“And that’s what I took into the chamber. I took in a handwritten note,” the former vaccines minister told the broadcaster’s royal correspondent Cameron Walker.

The note was passed to Ms Truss after she had concluded her opening remarks during a debate on UK energy costs, with the ex-foreign secretary seen conversing with Mr Zahawi while opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer was issuing his response.

The Labour frontbench, meanwhile, were made aware by a note being passed to deputy leader Angela Rayner, who then left and returned to write and pass on a message to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.

She then passed the note onto Sir Keir while he was standing at the despatch box, with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle interrupting then SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford to share the news more widely with MPs.

“I wish to say something about the announcement that has just been made about Her Majesty. I know that I speak on behalf of the entire House when I say that we send our best wishes to Her Majesty the Queen, and that she and the royal family are in our thoughts and prayers at this moment,” he said.

The announcement from Buckingham Palace was made not long after 12:30pm and stated the Queen’s doctors were “concerned for Her Majesty’s health” and recommended she “remain under medical supervision” at Balmoral.

At around 6:30pm, it was announced the Queen had “died peacefully” at Balmoral that afternoon.

In the same GB News report, Ms Truss revealed the nature of their conversation at Balmoral when she was made PM, reflecting that the Queen was “very, very keen to reassure me that we’d be meeting again soon”.

“The assumption absolutely was that this would be the first of many meetings,” she said.

Mr Zahawi also shared that an indication that something was wrong was also given when plans for him and other ministers to be sworn into the Privy Council via video link on 7 September were shelved in favour of a “spider phone” device.

“We waited for a few minutes and then the news arrived that the Queen would no longer be able to do the meeting, and that was the first I heard of it, but clearly, it was a very ominous sign,” Ms Truss added.

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