Maria Miller – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II
The tribute made by Maria Miller, the Conservative MP for Basingstoke, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.
It is with great sadness that I rise to pay tribute to Her late Majesty the Queen on behalf of my constituents. The late Queen was held in the highest esteem in my constituency and throughout the borough of Basingstoke and Deane. Our mayor, Councillor Paul Miller, said only today:
“The commitment that she made to her role and the public service she has given is matchless.”
My constituency has a proud loyalist history. At the siege of Basing House, our ancestors, as committed royalists, supported an earlier King Charles, and we proudly, but with sadness, welcome our new King Charles III as our sovereign. As we come together to grieve the loss of Her late Majesty the Queen, we remember the remarkable woman that she was: an inspiration for a nation and a person who made us proud to be part of a United Kingdom. Her loss will be felt not only at home but abroad, particularly by the people who make up our Commonwealth. Just two weeks ago, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association held its annual meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we toasted Her late Majesty as our patron. We will remember her fondly.
It helps at times such as this to share some of our personal memories by way of grieving. I will always remember the first time I had the privilege of meeting Her late Majesty, which was at Balmoral in September 2012 when I was appointed as a Privy Counsellor. As many have already said, such encounters involve a number of briefings. Perhaps knowing that I shared Her late Majesty’s love of dogs, I was warned not to encounter the Corgis too closely, because they can be quite selective in who they like and will overtly demonstrate their feelings towards strangers. I kept my distance, but my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) did not. She was far more daring than me, but left with all her fingers intact.
I also remember the great honour of twice hosting Her late Majesty on Remembrance Sunday as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Walking with Her late Majesty through the Foreign Office can be a nerve-wracking task in its own right—the layout of the Foreign Office is quite complicated—and we reached the top of the final set of stairs only to encounter the most enormous countdown clock showing that we had a matter of seconds to get out to the Cenotaph. Trying to lighten the mood, Her late Majesty simply said, “I hope you’ve adjusted the timings. I’m getting a bit older and I take more time on the stairs.” That was her usual sense of humour at play, trying to put everybody at ease.
I was humbled to receive a damehood in Her late Majesty’s final birthday honours list to mark her platinum jubilee, and I will treasure that. Each of us here today took an oath of allegiance to Her late Majesty, to her heirs and successors, so may she rest in peace. God save the King.
