Tag: 2022

Colum Eastwood – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Colum Eastwood, the SDLP MP for Foyle, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

The warm tributes that have already been paid to Queen Elizabeth II by hon. and right hon. Members tell their own story about the great respect and deep affection that so many from such diverse and different backgrounds had for her—an affection and respect that transcend mere political difference and speak to her position as a leader and an example of public service.

As others have said, the Queen was one of the most consequential civic figures of the last century. As political leaders came and went, and as public opinion ebbed and flowed, she remained a constant—an unyielding and limitless source of strength and comfort for her people in times of national pride and sorrow. Her reign, which lasted more than 70 years, spanned the embers of conflict that followed the second world war and the peace process between our islands and peoples. During that time, she forged a legacy that will outlast all of us here. I hope it lays the foundation for enduring relations between these islands, in spite of the challenges that we now face.

As leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party, I had cause to meet Queen Elizabeth on a number of occasions. Believe me when I say that it is difficult to think of two people more divorced from each other, in background and aspiration, but I can only recount that in any dealings that I had with her, I found her a person of great warmth, character and enduring passion for the interests and needs of people. That, I think, is the reason for the longevity of her support from the British people.

As a leader of Irish nationalism, I want to place on the record my deep appreciation and respect for the Queen’s role in forging new bonds of friendship between our islands and our people. It is all so easy to forget now, but she was also a victim of the conflict that the people of these islands were subjected to for 40 long years. I know that the murder of her cousin, Lord Mountbatten, in Mullaghmore in August 1979 had a profound effect on her and her extended family. She experienced the sharp pain of loss, but in common with the people of Ireland, she took risks for peace and played an enormous role in reconciling the traditions that share our islands.

At no time was that more visible than during Queen Elizabeth’s 2011 visit to Ireland. I believe that her visit to the garden of remembrance in Dublin, and the way she stretched herself to be an example of a good neighbour to Ireland in those moments, contributed in a very significant way to healing the wounds of our past. Those cúpla focal, those few words of Irish—“A Uachtaráin agus a chairde”; “President and friends”—were a symbolic embrace of the Irish people, and they were deeply appreciated.

The blessing of a long life does not make the burden of saying goodbye any lighter. My sincerest condolences are with the Queen’s immediate family, with right hon. and hon. Members here today, and most particularly with those in Northern Ireland for whom she held a cherished place in their lives and their hearts. I know how difficult it is to lose your hero, but there is comfort in the lasting legacy that she will leave, having helped shape our common history.

The story of our peoples is fundamentally and inseparably intertwined. We all live in each other’s shadow. I hope that we continue to build on the legacy that Queen Elizabeth II helped forge. May she rest in peace.

September 9, 2022
Nigel Adams – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Nigel Adams, the Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

It is with great sadness that I rise to speak in the tributes to Her late Majesty the Queen, not only on my behalf, but on behalf of my constituents in Selby and Ainsty. The news that the whole nation had been dreading brings the reign of the longest-serving monarch in British history to an end. As we have heard, as a child, she was not expected to be Queen, but her destiny, and that of our nation, changed when her father acceded to the throne as King George VI. As a 21-year-old woman, she pledged to live a life of service. No one anywhere can say that she did not deliver on that pledge.

I vividly recall the celebrations for the Queen’s silver jubilee in my village and across the nation. It is incredible that she also celebrated golden, diamond and platinum jubilees. Her life spanned some of the most amazing milestones of the last century—the discovery of penicillin, the moon landings, and the invention of the world wide web. She also circumnavigated the world, visiting hundreds of countries, including those Commonwealth countries that she held in such affection. The Queen also visited Selby in my constituency, alongside her beloved husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1969, when they came to present Maundy money to 43 men and 43 women at Selby abbey; 10,000 people lined the town’s streets that day to welcome and catch a glimpse of their monarch.

Like many hon. and right hon. Members, I had the privilege of meeting the Queen, both times at the palace. I cannot tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, how nervous I was as we lined up to meet her. All my nerves were calmed, however, once I had been greeted by that beautifully warm smile and her welcoming words. That warmth, and that smile, has comforted our nation over the decades, through good and challenging times. The word “constant” has been widely used; that is exactly what Her late Majesty was. It is difficult to imagine life without her, and it feels as though we have all lost a grandmother.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), in his touching speech, referred to Her late Majesty as Elizabeth the Great. He was absolutely right to do so. She was a truly great monarch—in some ways, the greatest monarch. Her late Majesty was also a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. My thoughts and prayers are with her family, and especially with King Charles III, who succeeds her to the throne. As my right hon. Friend also said, it is a tribute to her that we can say with great confidence: God save the King.

We owe Her late Majesty a great debt of gratitude. May God bless her and keep her. May she rest in peace, and if I may paraphrase a small bear from darkest Peru, “Ma’am, thank you for everything.”

September 9, 2022
Margaret Hodge – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

What has been so remarkable about the words that have been spoken about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth since her death is just how many people’s lives she touched. It was not simply the length of her reign or her complete commitment to duty, but her character and the way in which she did her work that meant that she was loved by so many and will be missed by us all. Many of us here today had the privilege of meeting her and talking to her. Like the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), I, too, had the drinks at Christmas. I remember wishing that I had known a bit more about cocktails, because I went for the safe gin and tonic instead.

I wish to remember Queen Elizabeth at the start of her reign and then recall two of the times that I was with her. I was eight when she was crowned. To my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Margaret Beckett), I say that we were still rationed in those days if she remembers. The reason that the chocolate was so welcome was that it was rationed chocolate—we did not care about the eggs and the meat being rationed, but the chocolate was important. We did not have a television in our home, so we huddled and crowded around a small black and white television in one of our neighbour’s houses. I really remember seeing the coach, the glittering jewels on the Queen’s crown and her stunning white dress. It was simply like a fairy tale—a Cinderella or a Snow White—coming true. That magical moment of beauty, hope and goodness has stayed with me throughout her long reign.

There were two occasions when I met the Queen that also remain strong in my memory. First, in the early 1980s, when I was leader in Islington, the Queen visited Sadler’s Wells. We laid on a session for her with a group of old-age pensioners—women living in Finsbury. We were running a keep fit dancing class under the tutorship of Sadler’s Wells teachers. The warmth of the Queen’s smile when she walked into the room, the utter joy of the women at being watched by Her Majesty and the calm way that she put them at ease when she talked to them was simply brilliant. For the Queen, it was probably just another day, but for the women, it was probably one of the most eventful days in their lives.

The second occasion was when the Queen visited Barking and Dagenham in July 2015—she was nearly 90—to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the borough. She spent almost the whole day there: opening a community centre; lunching at a local theatre; visiting schools and watching a swimming display. Thousands of my constituents came out to see her and many met her. She enjoyed a rapturous reception. The fact that she had chosen to spend so much of her time with us on what must have been a tiring day—she was getting on for 90—demonstrates, I think, her total commitment to duty and to us, her people. Among the sea of Union Jacks that met her, I just remember the placards that said, “Welcome our Queen. We love you.”

At a time of a constant change, Queen Elizabeth II gave us stability. At a time of uncertainty, tension and conflict, she always provided a path to reconciliation. As a nation and community, she provided leadership that brought recognition, respect and status, and love to all of Great Britain and all of our people. We will miss her.

September 9, 2022
Matt Hancock – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Matt Hancock, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

I rise to share gratitude for the life of Her late Majesty the Queen; share sadness for her family; and share sadness for the country and the world at the loss of the greatest statesman of our time. I also want to mark my personal gratitude for the advice that Her Majesty gave me, and in particular, as was mentioned by the most recent former Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), for her role in bringing the country together and giving hope in dark times during the pandemic. I also add my gratitude for her taking the rare step of going public with her health status when she declared that she had taken a vaccination, showing further leadership.

The Queen was much loved, of course, across my West Suffolk constituency, but perhaps nowhere more than in Newmarket, which she visited so often. Newmarket, of course, is the jewel in the crown of horse-racing, certainly domestically and probably across the world. On her many, many visits there she showed that she could walk with sovereigns and the general public alike. Newmarket was where I first met her, when I was lucky to be with my small daughter, who handed her a posy. It is my daughter’s first memory, and will no doubt be an abiding one for the rest of her life.

That reminds me of the many times that I have seen Her Majesty meeting the public and been impressed and inspired by her sheer ability to ensure that each person she met understood that she was focused entirely on them. She listened so well to them, knowing no doubt that, for each person she met, it was a moment that that person would remember for the rest of their life. Her fortitude in continuing to do that well into her 90s was incredible to behold.

We in Newmarket are not always known for our humility, but we do know that the reason Her Majesty loved to come to Newmarket was not we two-legged beings, but the four-legged ones. Her love of horse-racing was perhaps her greatest love outside of her duty to her family and her country. The twinkle that we have heard so much about was probably brightest, and the genuine smile that came on her face at its broadest, when she was at a racecourse, as she demonstrated on what was probably her last social public occasion at Ascot. I remember that love particularly when she visited to open the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket. She went down the line of dignitaries and she went down and met the public. She gave them her customary focus, but she was clearly doing her duty, because the museum is full of retired racehorses and it was only when she got to them that she really lit up. That was Her Majesty at her best.

We have lost a great servant. She is replaced by another great servant of our nation. God save the King.

September 9, 2022
Liz Saville Roberts – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

On behalf of Plaid Cymru, I offer my sincerest sympathies and condolences to Her late Majesty the Queen’s children and her extended family as they come to terms with their grief. Queen Elizabeth II was a constant presence throughout all of our lives. She stood as a figure of stability in a world changing at a rapid and sometimes frightening pace. The loss of the continuity that Her late Majesty embodied is a source of sorrow and anxiety for people across the world.

Up to her final days she conducted her duties with an extraordinary dedication that has been an inspiration for so many of us. Her values of duty, service, reconciliation and forgiveness are held dear by the people of Wales. In Wales, we respect people who embody that sense of dedication to society and to public service; those who put their public duty first. Her late Majesty the Queen personified that duty for so many people for so many years.

Her late Majesty had a canny ability to put people at ease in the midst of Palace formality. Three years ago, I was fortunate to be appointed to the Privy Council. I remember being nervous and intimidated by the protocols and rules that govern interactions with the royal family. Your mind, as it would, tots up an infinite checklist of everything that could possibly go wrong.

What struck me was something she said: “You may well be worrying that you’ll do something wrong, or in the wrong order. Don’t worry. Whatever could possibly go wrong, I’ve seen it all before. There’s nothing that you could do that would shock me now.” Even among all the pomp and ceremony, there was that characteristic warmth and courtesy to the Queen.

Her Majesty was a magnificent role model for older women across the world. Historically, of course, older women have disappeared from public life. The Queen was a constant visible figure throughout the 70 years of her reign. From historic buildings and charities to football, she always showed an interest in Wales. People of all walks of Welsh life have been touched by her keen interest in and constant support for Welsh organisations. She attended every official opening of the Senedd and showed due respect for Wales’s nationhood and our growing democracy.

The Queen was patron to organisations as diverse as the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, the Football Association of Wales, the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and the Welsh Pony and Cob Society. Her love of horses, from thoroughbreds to native ponies, shone through. We can see it in those sparkling smiles. Everyone in public life knows that they have a public smile, but the photos with the horses show her real smile.

We now see one era drawing to a close and a new one at its very beginning. For now we will say, “Diolch yn fawr iawn.” “Thank you very much, your Majesty.” Cwsg mewn hedd. May she rest in peace. Bendith Duw ar y Brenin. God’s blessing on the King.

September 9, 2022
Sajid Javid – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Sajid Javid, the Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle). I am filled with great sadness as I rise to pay tribute to the life and memory of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts are with the royal family, who have lost a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother.

Her late Majesty lived an extraordinary life of service, and the touching tributes that we have heard from right hon. and hon. Members, along with the outpouring of emotion from across the world, including from my constituents in Bromsgrove district, reflect the deep affection and love for her. For more than seven decades, she was a source of strength and comfort, a representative of our closest-held values and beliefs, a defender of faith and an embodiment of the very best of public service and duty. She was our north star; a symbol of strength in difficult times. To put it simply, she was our Queen.

Many right hon. and hon. Members have shared stories of times when they were privileged to meet Her late Majesty. I did so on many occasions, and I always welcomed the huge wisdom that she would share, the advice and of course the good humour. I will never forget how, as the formalities of the final Privy Council meeting of 2017 ended, Her Majesty suddenly said, “Gin and tonic anybody?” She proceeded to press a buzzer and, with that, her staff promptly burst through the doors of the 1844 room in Buckingham Palace armed with trays of G and T and nibbles. Now, I am not much of a G and T drinker, but I was certainly not going to turn down the opportunity of enjoying one with Her late Majesty. I later learned that she liked to make the last Privy Council meeting of the year extra special so that she could wish everyone a merry Christmas.

Our country faces immense challenges at home and abroad, and the person who has always been there is there no longer. However, in the wake of this terrible loss, there is an opportunity for parliamentarians from across this House to renew their commitment to the values that were embodied by Her late Majesty: public service, duty and the national interest. If we can leave this place having achieved but the smallest fraction of what Her late Majesty achieved, our country will be the better for it. After a lifetime of service, Her late Majesty is now at rest. May she rest in peace, and God save the King.

September 9, 2022
Angela Eagle – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Angela Eagle, the Labour MP for Wallasey, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

It is an honour to pay tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of my constituents in Wallasey, who are in shock and mourning today.

One thing that strikes everyone contemplating this sad news is the sheer span of time of Her late Majesty’s reign—the longest ever reign in UK history. She was someone who lived through an era of profound upheaval and change, but who represented continuity and certainty amid the tumult. It is hard to remember that when she was born in 1926, only 10 women had ever been elected to this House of Commons, and at the time women did not exercise the vote on the same terms as men.

Thankfully, that has now changed, although I always say that work to achieve equality is never done—but, as the Mother of the House said earlier, Her late Majesty led by example and by being. As our Head of State who was clearly a woman, a wife and a mother, she demonstrated how possible it was, even if that had been granted to her by destiny, to combine her role and the pressure that she had on her with a family life.

Her late Majesty’s coronation was the first to be televised; now the monarchy has a presence on social media platforms seen by billions. Her reign has seen the transition from Empire to Commonwealth and from conflict to peace in Northern Ireland, but also from complacency to climate emergency, which demonstrates to us all that we have much to do and many problems to confront.

The values the Queen personified are clear from the comments in this House: utter commitment to public service and duty. She was a woman who dedicated her life to the service of our nation and, when she said at age 21 in a broadcast:

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service”,

it was a vow that she delivered, as we now know, faithfully to the very end. She personified wisdom and experience but, as the right hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame Andrea Leadsom) said, she had that twinkle in her eye. Whenever people were waiting in line to meet Her late Majesty, they could see the twinkle and it put them at ease.

The Queen first visited Wirral in 1957, but during my time in this House she first came to Birkenhead when she opened the Europa pool in 1996. Finally, she came to Wallasey for the second time in 2011, to open the newly rebuilt Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton. Thousands upon thousands of official duties—many thousands of my constituents looked forward to her visits and have fond memories of them. She was always interested, always engaging and always smiling and reassuring when she interacted with people who lined the routes to see her on those fantastic occasions.

The loss of Her late Majesty will be mourned; it is a terrible, but inevitable loss. She left us in a place where we know we can survive the transition because of the strength she gave to the institution. May she rest in peace. I send the greatest condolences to the royal family, who are going through such a terrible loss. We look forward to supporting the new King as much as we supported our now sadly lost Queen Elizabeth II.

September 9, 2022
Andrea Leadsom – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Andrea Leadsom, the Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

It was strange to wake up on this first day without our much loved and hugely respected Queen Elizabeth II. There is a sense of personal loss as well as shock. Somehow, her long years of service, commitment and duty felt as if they would never come to an end. As one of the older members of my family told me just this morning, things have changed so much in her and our lifetime, and sometimes we feel hopelessly out of date and rather uncomfortable. She was our figurehead, and for that we are truly grateful.

The Queen’s reign was somehow timeless. I listened back this morning to her first televised Christmas broadcast in 1957, and then to her broadcast to the nation during covid. Queen Elizabeth II provided continuity right from the post-war years, through 15 different Prime Ministers—from Sir Winston Churchill to my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss)—to the extraordinary heart-warming royal digital performances with James Bond and Paddington Bear. For me, her handbag will now always contain a marmalade sandwich.

I always remember being sworn in as a Privy Councillor. It was on the same day as my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson). We were given the usual briefing on how to kneel on a footstool with our right hand by our side and our left hand holding a bible. My right hon. Friend and I looked at one another and asked, “What! What if you fall off your footstool?” We were told, very straight-faced, “Don’t worry, the Queen will find it very amusing,” which we did not find reassuring, but luckily, it did not happen.

As Lord President of the Council during the hung Parliament of 2017 to 2019, I had the honour of regular audiences with the Queen ahead of Privy Council meetings. On those occasions, I was always struck by the warmth of the welcome and the frankness of the conversation. The Queen was always interested to hear updates on the progress of legislation and on the mood of the House. She was very well informed and quite challenging at a time of extraordinary events, from Brexit and Donald Trump’s visit to behaviour scandals here in Westminster.

Once a year, the Leaders of the Commons and the Lords would be invited to Windsor castle for lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip. Those occasions felt quite overwhelming, but at the same time, after a pre-lunch drink in the sitting room, we got into a conversation about how well the restoration of Windsor castle was going—presided over by Prince Philip—compared with our own efforts to restore the Palace of Westminster, and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and I were soon distracted as we sought to defend the indefensible.

A happy memory for me is going to Sandringham one January for Privy Council, with log fires burning and the Queen’s corgis pottering around. I recall the Queen saying what a very busy Christmas she had had, and I suggested that at least her family did not need to pause Christmas lunch for the Queen’s speech, at which she told me that they most certainly did. Like all of us, her family had paused lunch to watch the Queen’s speech, and Princess Charlotte had run over to the TV screen and said, “Look, there’s Gan-Gan!”—very heart-warming.

At each audience it would strike me anew that Privy Council meetings were just one of the Queen’s many daily duties, and that her cheerfulness and her twinkling eyes were a constant. Truly, she was a monarch who put the comfort of others above herself, and she never faltered in her promise to spend her life devoted to service. As we have prayed every day in this place that Queen Elizabeth II,

“may always incline to thy will, and walk in thy way”,

so I believe we can now pray with confidence that,

“after this life she may attain everlasting joy and felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Queen Elizabeth II spent her life building relationships in our nation, our Commonwealth and across the world. In her achievements we can all take comfort, and know that as the Crown passes to our new King, we will have the example of her legacy to unite us in loyal allegiance to her successor, King Charles III. God save the King.

September 9, 2022
PRESS RELEASE : Prime Minister’s call with Taoiseach Micheál Martin

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 9 September 2022.

The Prime Minister spoke to Taoiseach Micheál Martin this afternoon.

The Taoiseach shared Ireland’s sincere condolences with the Prime Minister following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen, and reminisced about her momentous visit to Ireland in 2011.

The Prime Minister thanked the Taoiseach for his condolences, and the leaders agreed Her Majesty The Queen had played a central role in healing divides and bringing people together.

September 9, 2022
John Cryer – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by John Cryer, the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

Unlike probably every previous speaker, I met the Queen only once. Appropriately enough, it was when she visited the Queen’s theatre in Hornchurch, my then constituency. When she left, she went on to go from strength to strength, as she always did; I went on to be ejected from Parliament by the voters at the following election, so we had slightly different experiences after her visit.

As the leader of the Liberal Democrats says, it is difficult to imagine a world without the Queen. That is absolutely true, but it is worth remembering something that is very rarely remembered: in 1936, after the abdication crisis, the monarchy teetered on the brink. According to most polls at the time, most British voters thought that the monarchy might not survive for very long, but since 1945 the monarchy has been the most popular institution in Britain and has polled at something like 80%. There is no institution that has polled at anything like that level of popularity over such a sustained period.

That is not an accident. It happened for two reasons: because the Queen and her father, George VI, had an iron dedication to public service—which possibly started in the most spectacular way when he decided to remain in London during the war instead of following the advice to leave London and go elsewhere, perhaps even to Canada, as one adviser suggested—and because both George VI and Elizabeth II had an absolutely clear understanding of the constitutional parameters of the role of the monarchy, and neither ever strayed outside that role.

Despite repeated attempts to pull the Queen into political controversies—the first one that I remember was when we had a hung Parliament in 1974, and article after article in the press said that the Queen should intervene and pull together the two big parties, or perhaps the three big parties, to form some sort of coalition Government—she refused to do it, and she was absolutely right. She was persistent in that all the way through. That is her great legacy: the monarchy has survived as a popular institution because she observed those absolutely correct constitutional parameters.

I think we all hope that if the new King observes those parameters, as I am sure he will, and has that dedication to public service, which he has already demonstrated, he can reunite and draw together a nation that is as bitterly divided as I can remember.

September 9, 2022