King Charles III showed little sympathy to Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss when they met during her ill-fated premiership in October 2022, saying to her: “Back again? Dear oh dear. Anyway.”

Truss resigned eight days later, just seven weeks into Charles’s reign, after her radical tax-cutting proposals spooked the financial markets.

She was followed into office by Rishi Sunak, who resigned on Friday after the Conservative Party’s crushing defeat in the general election.

Keir Starmer, the 61-year-old leader of the Labour Party, will now become the third prime minister in two years after Charles tasked him with forming a new government during a meeting at Buckingham Palace.

As a constitutional monarch, Charles is not supposed express any political opinion in public and does not vote.

When Truss objected to his plans to attend the 2022 COP 27 climate summit in Egypt, Charles — a long-time defender of the environment — did not go.

Experts have suggested Charles has some ideological affinity with Starmer — a one-time anti-monarchist — and will likely greet his arrival with some relief, hoping he can restore political stability.

“We know a lot about King Charles III because he expressed so many opinions when he was Prince of Wales before he became king,” professor Ed Owens, a specialist in the monarchy, told AFP.

“I think we can therefore anticipate a greater synergy between the king and his new prime minister,” he added.

Owens said the king had “long expressed concern around key social issues, including poverty, issues around the food crisis in the UK, homelessness and concerns around young people’s education and opportunities.”

Starmer, with whom the monarch will have a private weekly meeting, “has demonstrated a key interest in these areas, so you could say that there’s a closer crossover,” he added.

While Labour has scaled back its green investment plans — a subject dear to the king’s heart — it is aiming to decarbonise the electric grid by 2030.