This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

David Cameron will apologise in person to the Queen after he was overheard saying she “purred” on hearing that Scots had voted against independence in last week’s referendum.

The prime minister’s remark to the former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg that he had “never heard someone so happy” as the Queen after Scotland voted no was inadvertently picked up by Sky News.

Cameron said he was “embarrassed” and “extremely sorry” for the remarks, the BBC reported.

Asked in New York if he regretted the matter and whether he would apologise to her, the Mail reported, he replied: “Yes and yes.”

“Look, I’m very embarrassed by this. I’m extremely sorry about it. It was a private conversation, but clearly a private conversation that I shouldn’t have had and won’t have again. My office has already been in touch with the palace to make that clear and I will do so as well.”



He would apologise in person when he next spoke to the Queen, Downing Street said.



Cameron’s lapse breached the convention that the prime minister never speaks about his conversations with the monarch and put in question her traditional neutrality.

Cameron had told Bloomberg of his pleasure at being able to tell the Queen the result.

“The definition of relief is being the prime minister of the United Kingdom and ringing the Queen and saying: ‘It’s alright, it’s OK’.

The Queen had “purred down the line” when he did so.



He added: “[The referendum] should never have been that close.



“It wasn’t in the end, but there was a time in the middle of the campaign when it felt ... I’ve said I want to find these polling companies and I want to sue them for my stomach ulcers because of what they put me through, you know. It was very nervous.”

In a statement after the referendum, the Queen said she hoped Scotland would come together again “in a spirit of mutual respect and support” despite “strong feelings and contrasting emotions”.