FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon will have an audience with King Charles on Monday, ahead of a motion of condolence at the Scottish Parliament. 

As is tradition, the meeting will be held in private, with no detail of the conversation revealed.

The two will meet in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, following the service in St Giles Cathedral.

The King and Queen Consort are due to fly into Scotland tomorrow morning, and will accompany the late Queen’s coffin as it moved up the Royal Mile from the palace to the cathedral.

It will lie in state at St Giles’ for 24 hours, with the public allowed in. Members of the royal family – including the King – will stand beside the coffin in a tradition known as the ‘Vigil of the Princes’.

The King and the Queen will head to the parliament tomorrow evening, where the First Minister and then the other party leaders will make short speeches. 

Presiding officer Alison Johnstone said the King’s visit marks a “milestone” for Scotland, adding: “People across Scotland continue to mourn the passing of Her Majesty The Queen and I wish to express on behalf of the Scottish Parliament our deepest condolences to His Majesty The King and The Royal Family.

“This motion of condolence will provide an opportunity for the Parliament to come together to pay tribute to The Queen’s life of service and her enduring bond with Scotland and its people.

“This day will also mark a significant milestone for the country as we welcome The King to the Scottish Parliament for the first time as monarch.”

The King held his first audience with the Prime Minister on Saturday. In recordings of the introduction, he told her: “I mustn’t take up too much of your time. It’s been so touching this afternoon when we arrived here, all those people who have come to give their condolences.”

Ms Truss offered her “very, very sincere condolences”.

The new King replied: “You’re very kind. It’s the moment I’ve been dreading, as I know a lot of people have. But you try and keep everything going. Come, come and have a seat and sit down.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, former prime minister Gordon Brown told how he could be “embarrassed” because the Queen “knew better” about current affairs than he did.

He said: “I never had any advice and she wouldn’t give that.

“But she would listen, she would ask questions. She would be endlessly knowledgeable about everything happening in the Commonwealth.

“I was very embarrassed one day because I went in to see her at six o’clock, I didn’t know that one of the Commonwealth leaders had been ousted and a new government had been formed.

“She was telling me what was happening when I was supposed to report to her.”

He said that even on current affairs in the UK, the Queen could be better informed than he was.

He said he could have been “in the House of Commons all afternoon, in endless debates or cabinet meetings or something” while he said the Queen had been keeping herself up to date by watching television and would be “getting notes from her secretaries”.

Mr Brown added: “She actually knew better about what was happening to the country than I was. It was quite embarrassing.

“But it just showed how conscientious she was, how well up on the detail, I think right to the last.

“You could see that in the meeting she had with Liz Truss when she became Prime Minister and Boris Johnson when he left, she could perform the duties right up until the end.

“She listened and she asked questions. I remember famously she asked ‘why have these bankers got it all wrong’ in 2008.”

He stated: “But she would never impose her will.

“This is the modern monarchy and I think she set the tone for what King Charles and the other monarchs will do.”

David Cameron has described how he had to apologise to the Queen after revealing details of one of their private conversations.

Microphones picked up the then prime minister recounting how the Queen “purred” down the telephone when he informed her of the result of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

Mr Cameron told the programme: “It was a very upfront and fulsome apology done very quickly at the beginning of an audience. I think that is all I should say.

“From ever onwards I have been more careful when cameras and microphones are around and I have learned my lesson.”

Asked if the Queen had told him off, Mr Cameron replied: “Obviously everything said at those meetings is entirely private.”