Boris Johnson and Theresa May deliver emotional speeches for Queen Elizabeth II in Commons

thank you Mr Speaker I hope the house will not mind if I begin with a personal confession a few months ago the BBC came to see me to talk about her majesty the queen and we sat down and the cameras started rolling and they requested that I should talk about her in the past tense and I'm afraid I simply choked up and I couldn't go on I'm really not easily moved to tears but I was so overcome with sadness that I had to ask them to go away and I know that today there are countless people in this country and around the world who have experienced the same sudden access of unexpected emotion and I think millions of us are trying to understand why we are feeling this deep and personal and almost familial sense of loss perhaps it's partly that she's always been there a changeless human reference point in British life the person who all the surveys say appears most often in our dreams so I'm varying in her pole star Radiance that we have perhaps been lulled into thinking that she might be in some way eternal think what we asked of her and think what she gave she showed the world not just how to Reign Over a people she showed the world how to give how to love and how to serve and as we look back at that vast Arc of service it's sheer duration is almost impossible to take it she was the last living person in British public life to have served in uniform in the Second World War she was the first female member of the royal family in a thousand years to serve full-time in the armed forces and that impulse to do her Duty carried her right through into her tenth decade to the very moment in Balmoral as my right on refenter said only three days ago when she saw off her 14th prime minister and welcomed her 15th and I can tell you in that audience she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by Politics as ever I can remember and as wise in her advice as anyone I know if not wiser she knew instinctively how to cheer up the nation had to lead a celebration I remember innocent Joy more than 10 years ago after the opening ceremony of the London Olympics when I told her that the leader of a friendly Middle Eastern country seemed actually to believe that she had jumped out of a helicopter in a pink dress and parachuted into the stadium and I remember her equal pleasure on being told just a few weeks ago that she had been a Smash Hit in her performance with Paddington Bear and perhaps more importantly she knew how to keep us going when times were toughest and unlike us politicians with our outriders and our armor-plated convoys I can tell you as a direct eyewitness that she drove herself in her own car with no detectives and no bodyguard bouncing at alarming speed over the Scottish landscape to the total amazement of the Ramblers and the tourists we encountered and it is that indomitable spirit with which she created the modern constitutional monarchy that the succession has already seamlessly taken place and I believe she would regard it as her own highest achievement that her son Charles III were clearly and amply follow her own extraordinary standards of Duty and service and the fact that today we can say with such confidence God save the key is a tribute to him but above all to Elizabeth the great who worked so hard for the good of her country not just now but for generations to come that is why we mourn her so deeply and it is in the depths of our grief that we understand why we loved her so much yesterday was a day that we all knew would come sometime but in our hearts of Hearts we hoped never would Queen Elizabeth II was quite simply the most remarkable person I have ever met I am sometimes asked among all the world leaders I met who was the most impressive and I have no hesitation in saying that from all the heads of state and government the most impressive person I met was her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and that love respect and admiration was born not out of her position but because of the person she was a woman of dignity and Grace of compassion and warmth of mischief and joy of wisdom and experience and of a deep understanding of her people her passing marks a generational change not just because of the length of her service but because of what she lived through when we marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in 2019 she was with the world leaders not just as Queen but as someone who had worn uniform during the second World War an experience which quite apart from anything else had taught her how to strip an engine the queen was always interested in people when she walked into a room the faces of those present were lit up and her magnificent smile would calm nerves and put people at their ease but I also saw that on other occasions including on what was one of her last if not the last appearance she made in public when she came to open Thames Hospice in my maidenhead constituency in July the moment she walked through the door the atmosphere in the room changed you felt the love and respect of the people there for her and as she spoke to staff and patients she exuded a warmth and Humanity which put people at their ease she was Queen but she embodied us across the nations of the world and for so many people meeting Queen Elizabeth simply made their day and for many will be the memory of their life what what made those audiences so special was the understanding the queen had of issues which came from the work she put into her red boxes combined with her years of experience she knew many of the world leaders in some cases she had known their fathers and she was a wise and a Droid judge of people the conversations that the audiences were special but so were weekends at Balmoral where the queen wanted all her guests to enjoy themselves and she was a thoughtful hostess she would take an interest in what books were put in your room and she didn't always expect to be the center of attention she was quite happy sometimes to sit playing her form of patience While others were mingling around her chatting to each other my husband tells of the time he had a dream he dreamed that he was sitting in the back of a Range Rover being driven around a Balmoral estate and the driver was her majesty the queen and the passenger seat was occupied by his wife the prime minister and then he woke up and realized it was reality [Laughter] Her Majesty loved the countryside and she was down to earth and a woman of Common Sense I remember one picnic at Balmoral which was taking place in one of the bosses on the estate the hampers came from the castle and we all mucked in to put the food and drink out on the table I picked up some cheese put it on a plate and was transferring it to the table the cheese fell on the floor a split second decision to make [Laughter] I picked up the cheese put it on the plate and put it on the table and I turned round to see that my every move has been watched very carefully by her majesty the queen I looked at her she looked at me and she just smiled and the cheese remained on the table she was our longest serving monarch she was respected around the world she United our nation in times of trouble she joined in our celebrations with joy and a mischievous smile she gave an example to us all of faith of service of Duty of dignity of decency she was remarkable and I doubt we will ever see her like again may she rest in peace and rise in glory

Channel: The Telegraph

Views: 718,100

Keywords: Telegraph, News, Rishi Sunak, Conservative, prime minister, liz truss, united kingdom, britain, england, conservative, telegraph, number 10 downing street, PM, for the first time in Parliament, Queen, Balmoral, health, breaking news, The Queen, Breaking news, Queen Elizabeth II dies, queen elizabeth ii, queen elizabeth, King Charles, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, indomitable spirit, Theresa may cheese, Theresa may Queen, MPs honour the queen, national mourning

Id: 7crC4ukwGVw

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2022