Queen Elizabeth's awkward New Year photo with Tony Blair finally debunked

The truth behind Queen Elizabeth’s awkward millennium night moment with Tony Blair has finally been revealed.

The infamous snap, taken at the Millennium Dome in 2000, shows the late Queen clasping hands with the then-Prime Minister during the singing of Auld Lang Syne. 

For years, the image has been branded the Royal Family’s “most excruciating” photo, with many assuming Blair initiated the uncomfortable hand-hold and thereby breaking royal protocol.

But according to royal expert Valentine Low, author of Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street, the truth is quite different. 

Speaking on the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential podcast, Low explained: “There’s this myth that Blair grabbed the Queen’s hand but, no, it’s the Queen who realised there should be some hand-holding going on.”

Low explained that the moment was not spontaneous as it was in the program for the night: “Everyone knew that Auld La Syne was going to be sung at the end of the evening, but it got to the moment and Blair thought to himself, ‘Oh god, what do I do now?’”

That’s when the Queen held out her hands to Prince Phillip on one side and Blair on the other.

The moment came after a night that insiders had already labeled a PR disaster. Former Labour press secretary Alastair Campbell even noted in his diary that the royal party looked “p****d off to be there.”