BOOING, thunder and biblical rain heralded Liz Truss’s first moments as Prime Minister of the UK.

The Tory party leader and her predecessor Boris Johnson both made swift entrances to Balmoral in Aberdeenshire to meet the Queen. The former was sworn into the top job while the latter finally officially resigned from office months after his initial resignation speech.

A crowd of 50 or so onlookers lined the car park at the entrance to the estate on Tuesday morning. Police officers on site insisted it was not a “formal protest” and that most were visiting the area.

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Yet that didn’t stop them from booing and heckling the Tory MPs as their convoys entered the royal estate. Apparently, Johnson’s boos were louder.

Scores of police officers could be seen around the entrance to Balmoral with the public kept at the car park near the entrance behind barriers at the start of the day.

Press were allowed a bit further in and escorted by officers across the bridge to the main gates. We were given the choice of which pen to stand in - so The National decided to get as close to the gates as possible.

The BBC had numerous journalists on-site for both local and national outlets, and radio and TV. The National counted two radio teams, approximately three TV cameras and numerous reporters including veteran Nicholas Witchell.

There were journalists from numerous outlets, including international media, posted outside the gates.

It was a quiet start to the day, but just after 11am the first sign of the extreme weather heading in our direction came as the thunder began.

It was somewhat ominous that less than two minutes later we heard that Truss, whose private jet had been circling the skies above Aberdeen due to fog, had finally landed.

Johnson’s cavalcade of three cars arrived at 11.15 am, whizzing past the press corps into the estate.

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By 11.49 he had left, and was no longer prime minister.

About half an hour later Truss’s convoy arrived, made up of four motors this time, and again flew through the gates past the armed police officers holding machine guns.

The thunder and rain started to escalate soon after.

Luckily, the small cafe hut at the gates was open, as at one point the rain became so relentless that journalists were forced under the seating area’s umbrella while we waited for Truss to make her exit.

We had to stand in silence while one of the BBC radio teams broadcast from beside us, lest we be shushed, huddled in the only dry spot as the road outside became closer to a river.

As the rain hit its peak breaking alerts started to come through that it was official, Truss was now the PM, despite that fact that only a tiny part of the electorate, the Tory membership, had put her there.

It was certainly foreboding - the fourth Tory PM in 12 years, with a packed in tray and numerous crises, many made by her own government and from the fallout of Brexit, was forced to suffer the thick, non-stop Scottish rain in the aftermath of her appointment.

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She clearly got a longer audience with the monarch than Johnson - over half an hour - leaving the estate at 1pm.

None of the reporters on site expected her to stop and answer questions. 

Nevermind the precedent of press-dodging set by Johnson - Truss was due to give a speech outside Downing Street in the afternoon, it was unsurprising she gave the Scottish press a miss.

The crowd left shortly after the motorcade made its way off the estate and back to Aberdeen Airport, forced off site by the weather.

Whatever is set to come, Truss’s premiership will surely end as it began - a washout.