Boris Johnson recalls Queen as 'bright and focused' in last meetings

Boris Johnson reminds his final meeting with Queen Elizabeth, which took place just two days before her death.

The former British prime minister, 58, told the BBC that the Queen, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 96, was "absolutely on it" when he submitted his resignation on Tuesday and the Queen chose Liz Truss to be her 15th prime minister in Scotland.

"Given how ill she obviously was, how amazing it was that she be so bright and focused," Johnson told the BBC of their final meeting.

"It was a pretty emotional time."

He also reminisced the Queen's death "was a colossal thing" for him, and that he felt "this slightly inexplicable excess of emotion" upon knowing the news.

About his weekly meetings with the Queen, Johnson spoke with the BBC that they were "a wonderful moment of tranquility" and "a fantastic break from everything else."

After losing the support of his cabinet, Johnson announced in July that he would be resigning as prime minister. But he decided to stay on as acting prime minister while the party looked for a replacement.

"The Right Honourable Boris Johnson MP had an Audience of The Queen this morning and tendered his resignation as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, which Her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept," Buckingham Palace said in a release on Tuesday.

After the Queen passed away, Johnson released a lengthy statement in which he noted, among other things, that the late monarch — who was promptly succeeded by her son, the current King Charles III "seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on."

"This is our country's saddest day because she had a unique and simple power to make us happy," he continued.

"That is why we loved her. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history."