The Ultimate Westminster Insider – POLITICO

Behind the scenes, the late Queen Elizabeth II was Westminster’s ultimate insider.

POLITICO host Ailbhe Rea and Annabelle Dickson find out how the Queen received a daily dose of gossip from deep within government and speak with two of the politicians responsible for sending this private missive to Buckingham Palace: the former Whip Conservative Anne Milton and former Cabinet Minister Julian Smith.

Simon Lewis, the Queen’s former communications secretary and later Gordon Brown in Downing Street, shares the inside track on red boxes and the ‘golden triangle’ that kept the Queen intimately informed of what was going on in her government, and Dr Michelle Clement, historian at King’s College London and scholar-in-residence at No 10, discusses the all-important private audiences between the Queen and her 15 prime ministers.