Category: Parliament

George Freeman – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by George Freeman, the Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

On behalf of the people of Mid Norfolk, I send our deepest condolences to all the royal family, Her late Majesty’s many friends and the royal household. I also echo the comments of the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) in paying tribute to the King’s spine-tingling tribute to his mother that we heard a little earlier.

This news has stopped the country in its tracks. As many colleagues have said, whether we were lucky enough to have met Her Majesty or not, we all feel that we have lost our own, much-loved grandmother, but also something very precious—a part of us, a part of our nation. We stopped the clocks and the political debates out of profound respect for our longest serving monarch, who as Head of State on the throne has guided our nation through the most extraordinary 70 years, celebrated so sincerely by a grateful nation in the jubilee earlier this year; how wonderful that she had a chance to see that gratitude.

Our nation mourns a remarkable woman, who has become, quite simply, as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister put it, this nation’s rock. As mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and figurehead—not just of the royal family, but of all her subjects, regardless of faith, race or any other creed across this great nation—through tumultuous times she has been a shining beacon of dedication to duty, office, public service and nationhood, the exemplary spirit and embodiment of the very best of the United Kingdom, and a unifying sea anchor stabilising our ship of state in often turbulent seas. She was always cheered, as today, by mass crowds wherever she travelled, and nowhere more than in her beloved royal county of Norfolk, where, through her home at Sandringham, she and her family have always been held proudly in very close affection and esteem, not least by the many serving and former members of the armed forces in our county and our country. It has been the privilege of my life to represent that county in her Parliaments and to serve as a Minister of the Crown under her last three Prime Ministers.

Who among us will forget her 2012 jubilee address to both Houses assembled in Westminster Hall? Addressing, as she was, six former Prime Ministers on the front row, she said that she had had the privilege of having been served by 12 Prime Ministers, and added over the top of her glasses, with a wry chuckle, “And doubtless there will be many more to come.” Perhaps she could see the next decade coming.

The many eloquent tributes, in particular from my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friends the Members for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) and for Maidenhead (Mrs May), the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) and the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman), have highlighted the many virtues and legacies of our dear late Queen Elizabeth—indeed, the Great. I will not repeat them.

I want to highlight three very particular legacies that are close to my heart and the hearts of my constituents. The first is children: the Queen understood and believed deeply that all of us in public office have a special duty to the children who are our future. They cannot vote or make their case in this Chamber; they need us to speak for them. As she famously said, children

“teach us all a lesson—just as the Christmas story does—that in the birth of a child, there is a new dawn with endless potential.”

Her duty to the cause of children around the country is legendary.

The second legacy I will mention is horses, hounds and the countryside. As a countryman and MP for a rural constituency, I thank Her Majesty, as well as her son and her grandsons, for always championing our rural heritage and way of life. From her love of the wilds of her native Scotland, to the high seas, the skies of Norfolk and especially her time with her beloved horses and hounds, she was indeed the monarch of the glen—and, may I say, the fens?

If the House will indulge me on a personal note, a great personal honour of mine relates to Her Majesty’s love of racing and deep expertise in thoroughbred racing; my late father had the great honour of being the retained royal jockey over fences to her late mother in the ’50s.

Finally, let me mention Her late Majesty’s commitment to the unsung heroes of voluntary service in this country—the charity workers, community helpers and selfless servants who embodied the spirit of selfless public service that she always did. Let us take this moment to renew our commitment to them, but let us also renew our commitment to restore the fragile public trust in our democracy. Her Majesty the Queen took on the monarchy in the wake of the abdication crisis and a world war. It is a remarkable and unprecedented legacy that, after 70 years, she leaves the monarchy stronger than she found it, and stronger, perhaps, than it has ever been.

God bless your Majesty; may she rest in eternal peace. God save the King.

September 10, 2022
Layla Moran – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

It is a true honour to be able to pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of my constituents in Oxford West and Abingdon. I restate the deep sorrow and sadness that many have already expressed.

The ties between the Queen and the community were strong indeed. In every milestone of her reign, Abingdon celebrated with an eccentric and much-loved bun throwing. She was also a regular visitor to our area; she inspected a military parade at RAF Abingdon in 1968, she opened Sophos at Abingdon Science Park in 2004 and she reopened the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford after its refurbishment in 2009.

One constituent remembered the following when he attended the official opening of the Joint European Torus fusion facility at Culham. He said:

“It was opened jointly by the Queen and President Mitterrand. As I recall, the Queen spoke first in English, and then in very polished French. A wonderful way to open a European project.”

Another constituent remembered:

“We were privileged to meet the Queen in Malaysia while living there. I took my six-year-old daughter, who was so excited to meet the real Queen and held a bouquet for her. When the Queen approached, my daughter, reluctant to release the flowers, asked, ‘Are you sure you are the real Queen? You are not wearing a crown, only a hat.’ The Queen replied, ‘I am sorry. The crown was a little heavy to wear today, but I hope you like my hat.’ My daughter, now convinced, released the flowers. I will always remember her warmth and humour while handling my daughter’s mistake.”

Those stories show not just her gargantuan work ethic but how her humility and humanity earned people’s loyalty. I am struck by how many people have been saying, “I am not a monarchist but I loved her.” The fact that she held people’s respect despite and not because of her title is testament to the genius that she brought to the role and is an example to us all.

I am sure that many have not got their heads around what life will be like without her. People have mentioned stamps and coins, but for me as a Brit who grew up abroad, it is the portraits. When we lived in Ethiopia in the ’80s, we would gather as a community at the British club or the embassy, and there she was, glorious in oils, gazing down on our festivities from some ornate framed picture. In the ’90s, when I was in Jamaica, where I remember visiting other schools as part of an orchestra practising both the British and the Jamaican national anthems in preparation for her state visit—of course, she was Head of State there, too. There she was again on the walls. The pictures were often smaller and more humble, but they were always there. Through time and space, she was always there, taken almost for granted, binding her people together, until yesterday, when she was not any more. Like many others, I cried.

My thoughts today are firmly with her family, and especially with King Charles at this incredibly difficult time. Our loyalty transfers to him and, as his pitch perfect address just this afternoon showed, we have absolutely nothing to fear. May our beloved Queen rest in peace. God save the King.

September 10, 2022
James Cartlidge – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by James Cartlidge, the Conservative MP for South Suffolk, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

It is an honour to be called to speak on this sombre day. On behalf of the people of South Suffolk, I send my condolences to the royal family and His Majesty King Charles III.

Like our previous Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), I will start by making a confession. I have never had the great honour to meet the Queen in the true sense, but I did work for her once. During my student holidays, I was a kitchen porter for Gardner Merchant, and one Christmas in the early 1990s I was recruited to do a 19-hour shift at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s staff Christmas party. It did not end well.

Luckily, no one else was around, but in the early hours, while I was concluding the tidying up, I managed to upend an entire bottle of red wine over one of the Queen’s presumably very expensive carpets. What does one do in such a situation? Total panic sets in, and fear of being sent to the Tower of London. So I did the only thing I could do. A few metres away was a very large Ming vase, and I simply relocated it. For all I know, because I have heard nothing since, it is still there. Sorry, ma’am. I pledge my loyalty to His Majesty, and I hope that he is merciful and resists the temptation to put an invoice for cleaning costs in the post.

Above all else, I want to express the great privilege I feel to have lived in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and the great fortune I feel that my four children lived as Elizabethans and knew what it was like to live under this extraordinary sovereign who was deservedly loved and adored the world over for her total devotion to our nation and our Commonwealth. May she rest in peace, supported in her sleep by our eternal love and affection. God save the King.

September 10, 2022
Barry Gardiner – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP for Brent North, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

This morning I was walking to the station at Wembley Central and an Afghan lady stopped me. Her language was, let us say, not much better than my Pashto, but through her accent I heard her say, “You are MP, yes?” I said that I was and asked if I could help her in any way. She shook her head and left me confused, because I thought I heard her say, “I at Green party, sorry”, and then she moved on. It took me a few moments to work out what she was actually saying. She wasn’t making a statement about her political affiliation, but saying that she had been at the Queen’s party, one of the glorious street parties that we held in Brent for the platinum jubilee. And in that simple word, “sorry”, she wanted to convey her condolences and share her own sorrow at the death of the late Her Majesty the Queen.

In Brent we like to claim that we are the most diverse place in the world. That may even be true. We speak more than 160 languages around the dinner tables, and we have welcomed generations of immigrants, people who came to build a better life for their children, and asylum seekers like that lady from Afghanistan. She spoke for every one of my constituents in Brent when she said, “I at Queen’s party, sorry.”

Every year for more than 40 years, my family has had a ritual. No matter whether the turkey is ready or not, Christmas dinner has to be finished in time to watch the Queen’s Christmas message at 3. I hope it does not seem disrespectful, but we used to grade them. Was it as good as last year? Would she focus on something new this time? Would there be mention of charities and visits to communities celebrating significant anniversaries or suffering from disasters? But two things were constant: the Commonwealth and her own deep, very personal faith in Jesus Christ, which was the guiding principle of her life.

Many have spoken of her life as a pattern of duty and service, and it was. But the virtues which, in my view, her life so manifestly displayed are what Christians call the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. As St Paul says,

“against such there is no law.”

Integrity is not a very fashionable thing in the public sphere these days, but her life was one of real integrity. We thank God that she brought all those virtues together in her life. It was a life that was selfless; it was a life that was whole. And now it is complete. May her soul rest in peace, and may God save the King.

September 10, 2022
Helen Whately – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Helen Whately, the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

On behalf of my Faversham and Mid Kent constituents, I echo the moving words that we have just heard from King Charles III: to Her late Majesty the Queen, I say, “Thank you. May you rest in peace”—a rest truly earned through a lifetime of service.

Most of us across the country cannot remember a time before Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth. She has been a constant in a changing and often dangerous world, a source of strength and steadfastness, and a leader by example with the courage to carry on, whatever the storm. She showed us that strength and courage need not be at the expense of kindness or humour. She touched the lives of so many people, old and young alike, in the UK and around the world.

I am sure that when visiting primary schools, we have all been asked, “Have you met the Queen?”—more often, in fact, than, “Have you met the Prime Minister?”. Sadly, my answer to the first of those questions has always been “No”, but I do have something that I am very personally grateful to her for. During the pandemic, Her late Majesty the Queen addressed the nation. It was a dark time, and I remember her address well, not only for the compassion and hope she expressed, but for one particular detail.

As Care Minister, I endeavoured to get social care staff thought of and talked about on a par with NHS staff. When I heard that the Queen was going to make an address, I sought to get a message to her. To this day, I do not know if it reached her, but what mattered is that when she got to the section of her address about healthcare staff, she spoke of health and social care staff in the same breath. She realised how important her words would be to care workers across country, and that brought tears to my eyes. After the bleak time of the pandemic, she then brought our communities together for her jubilee, a joyful celebration of what we have in common.

As a nation, we mourn her, but first and foremost in my thoughts are her family, who mourn a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. I wish them strength and solace in a life so long and well lived. Our thoughts are with our new King. We know that he will serve with passion and dedication, and on behalf of my constituents, I wish him strength and good fortune as he takes on the responsibilities of our Head of State. Long live the King.

September 10, 2022
Liz Kendall – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Liz Kendall, the Labour MP for Leicester West, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

On behalf of the people of Leicester West, I would like to send our deepest sympathy and condolences to His Majesty the King and the royal family. They have lost their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, as well as their sovereign. I hope the fact that the whole nation grieves alongside them provides some small comfort at this difficult time.

Queen Elizabeth was a simply remarkable public servant, unparalleled in our lifetime, who always put her people and country first. She dedicated her life to duty and to others; it was never ever about herself. I think this selfless service is why she holds such a unique place in our history and hearts, and it is what she will be remembered for most of all.

The Queen’s astonishing reign saw changes unimaginable 70 years ago. Her constant calm presence gave us stability through turbulent times, and her words of wisdom provided perspective and strengthened our resolve. I think in particular of her address to the nation during the covid pandemic. The Queen reminded us of how families had been separated during the second world war, and that although that was painful, it was the right thing to do. She also rightly said that the challenge of the pandemic was different from the war, because we joined nations across the globe in a common endeavour to beat the virus. There is nothing more powerful than hope for a better future—hope that better days lie ahead. That is what the Queen gave us so many times.

Finally, many hon. Members will know that I represent a very diverse constituency. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth) said, we were absolutely thrilled when the Queen decided to begin her diamond jubilee tour in Leicester 10 years ago. Her loss will be felt in every community and by those of every faith, as well as by those with none. Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jewish or Jain, the Queen stood for the values we all share—what we hold in common, not what divides us—as does His Majesty the King. I saw that when he visited the Narborough Road in my constituency. Often called the most diverse street in the country, it has more than 20 different nationalities along the way. That was a huge day, and he was welcomed with excitement, joy and open arms, as I am sure he will be as our new King.

I send my constituents’ thoughts and prayers to the royal family and our thanks to the late Queen for all she gave, and on behalf of us all, I say long live King Charles III.

September 10, 2022
Alberto Costa – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Alberto Costa, the Conservative MP for South Leicestershire, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

In April 2017, as MP for South Leicestershire, I had the honour of meeting Her late Majesty the Queen and His late Royal Highness Prince Philip when the Queen hosted lunch for a small gathering at St Martins House in Leicester following the royal maundy service in Leicester cathedral. Along with the Prince, she was extremely gracious, listening with interest to the issues affecting Leicester and Leicestershire, and thanking those within our local community who do so much in the many charities in our area. It was a moment of great joy to have personally witnessed the late Queen at work. By placing duty at the forefront of everything she did, she was a role model of how public service should be conducted.

On behalf of the chairmen and councillors of the town and parish councils of South Leicestershire; the chairman of Harborough District Council, Councillor Neil Bannister, and his fellow Harborough councillors; the chairman of Blaby District Council, Councillor Iain Hewson; the Leicestershire county councillors of my constituency; all my constituents; and my family—my wife Maria, daughter Sophie and son Alexander—as the Member of Parliament for South Leicestershire, I want to give thanks for the seven decades of public service given by our late Queen, and I express my sincere condolences to His Majesty the King and the royal family. God save the King.

September 10, 2022
Jess Phillips – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

Very much like the Prime Minister, I was not raised in a house of monarchists. Yesterday, when the first news came of the Queen’s ill health, I was in the National Security Bill Committee. I was surprised by how deeply affected I felt by the news—I was extremely emotional immediately. It felt like that phone call that almost everybody who has lost somebody close to them gets, that says, “Get here soon. Now is the time.” That made me wonder, “Why do I feel like this?” It is because it feels as if the Queen was a member of every one of our families—even a family like mine. We can project our own life on to hers. No matter how different that life is from the one that the Queen had, her universal experience feels like ours, and she feels like she is with us all.

That made me reflect on all the stories we have all been reading. There is a story for everybody about the Queen’s grace. Anyone—no matter what their political persuasion or religion, and whatever floats their boat—can find a story going around at the moment about the Queen that leads to their bias.

Alison McGovern

She was clever like that.

Jess Phillips

Yes, she was clever like that. It is an incredible skill, and shows what an icon and a diplomat she was.

You can see the Queen as a traditionalist, you can see her as a modernist, you can see her as somebody with deep faith, you can see her as somebody who represented well people without a faith, but what I have found is that the Queen was a feminist. The brilliant story about the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia being driven quite roughly by the Queen around the Balmoral estate when women in Saudi Arabia were not allowed to drive is one of my top stories. But I saw a story that said:

“When HM Queen came to open the Rolls Building, she was ushered into a room in which were waiting all the judges. She looked at the ermine-clad…ranks of Chancery judges, smiled, and said crisply ‘Where are the women?’ A look of panic crossed multiple faces, until someone saw three female chancery…district judges in a dark corner. ‘There they are!’ he shouted. So the Queen went to talk to them.”

What a woman, what a leader—who, no matter what sort of family they grew up in and no matter in which bit of the world, everybody feels they have a tiny little bit of her with us. God rest the Queen.

September 10, 2022
Vicky Ford – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Vicky Ford, the Conservative MP for Chelmsford, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

I remember as a child being given a large pair of scissors and a huge stack of well-thumbed magazines and being asked to make a massive collage of pictures of the Queen and her family. It was the silver jubilee, and there did not seem to be any arrangement for a party, so my mother had decided to fling open the doors and hold a fête. We wrapped up presents to put in the lucky dip, we even arranged to have a candy floss machine, and somebody bought some ponies for pony rides—but we did not know whether people would come. I wanted to tell this story because this was in Omagh, in Northern Ireland, in 1977, in the middle of the troubles—but the people came. They came in their hundreds. They came from all walks of life. The Protestants came. The Catholics came. And they came because they loved our Queen.

People love our Queen. She has been the rock beneath our feet in troubled times and the light that has shown us the way in the darkness. They love her in Chelmsford, they love her across the country and they love her across the world. During my political career, I have had the opportunity to travel to many countries, especially in the past year, and I have felt that love and fondness again and again. It is particularly in many developing countries that I have felt that love, respect and gratitude. That is because, at every Christmas message, and in so many visits and events, the Queen used her voice to speak out for the most vulnerable and to make sure that their voices were heard. As the Development Minister that she appointed earlier this week, I pledge to continue that legacy for her.

I also know how much love and respect there is for our new monarch, King Charles III, especially for his work on the environment and climate change. My condolences, my thoughts and my prayers are with him and his family. I look forward to his reign. God save the King.

September 10, 2022
Colleen Fletcher – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Colleen Fletcher, the Labour MP for Coventry North East, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

I rise to pay tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on my behalf and that of the people in my Coventry constituency. For all of us, individually and collectively, this is a moment of great sorrow and profound national sadness as we mourn the loss of Queen Elizabeth II—our longest-reigning and most remarkable monarch, who always displayed an unwavering commitment and steadfast devotion to our nation and the Commonwealth.

For over seven decades, the Queen has been a symbol of stability and continuity, an ever-present part of the fabric of national life. For so many of us—me included—she was the only monarch we have ever known and was a constant presence throughout our lifetime. Indeed, as our society, our country and the wider world changed beyond all recognition around us, she was a reassuring presence of solidity and constancy.

Throughout her reign, the Queen certainly made her mark on the city of Coventry. She first visited Coventry in 1948 to inaugurate the new city centre and lay the foundation stone of the new shopping precinct as the city recovered from the devastation of war and the blitz on Coventry. Thereafter, she visited Coventry on several other occasions, most notably for the consecration of the new cathedral in 1962—I remember that very well; when I was a child, we all went along from school—the opening of the newly refurbished Walsgrave Hospital in 1970 and, latterly, the home front exhibition at Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in the year 2000. It was on that occasion that I met the Queen. I was a councillor in Coventry and took along my elderly mother-in-law, Val, to meet her, too. Even though Val was extremely nervous, she was able to chat to the Queen about life in Coventry during the war. Val never forgot that day for the rest of her life, and she spoke about it often. Watching Val, I strongly sensed people’s allegiance and love for the Queen and her family. Following those visits, and the many others the Queen made to Coventry, she left a lasting legacy in the city and enduring memories for its residents, who I know will feel an overwhelming sense of loss following her passing.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and a much cherished monarch. Her life was one of extraordinary dedication and service, and her loss will be felt in every corner of our nation and right across the world. Rest in peace, your Majesty.

September 10, 2022