Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Debate between Lord True and Lord Ramsbotham

Saturday 10th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ramsbotham (CB)]

My Lords, I had the privilege and pleasure during my Army career to have audiences with Her Majesty the Queen. When I became Chief Inspector of Prisons, those audiences continued. What was very impressive was the Queen’s knowledge about our prisons. May she rest in peace. God save the King.

[The Lord Privy Seal (Lord True) (Con)]

My Lords, the desire to express love and affection for Her Majesty has been exemplified right to the end of these tributes. I must apologise to the House: because of various duties that I have had to perform, I have not been able to be present as much as I would have liked for the tributes, though I have followed them on the monitor and looked at Hansard. I will comment on that in a moment.

The duties that I have had to perform have led me to various well-known buildings in London which I am not normally accustomed to visiting. I can certainly report to your Lordships who have been immured here in this building that, when one goes there, one sees the extraordinary gathering of the crowds and the people of all places, all natures and all types coming to express their devotion to Her Majesty and their loyalty and affection to our new King.

I am not here as Leader of the House to mark your Lordships as if it were some kind of song contest. All I would say is that I believe that this House has conducted these two days of tributes extraordinarily well and has done so with dignity, courtesy and—something that I value—a spirit of unity. I believe all those things would have pleased Her late Majesty enormously.

Before I formally move the humble Address and conclude these proceedings, I also want to pay tribute to the staff of your Lordships’ House. Over the last 48 hours they have displayed qualities of dedication and a sense of duty that also would have pleased Her late Majesty. They always do so, but they have gone more than the extra mile. There are a huge number of people involved in the operation to get and keep this House sitting. This is in fact an unusual Saturday sitting, but one loses the sense of what day of the week it is.

People have been working 24 hours a day—see how quickly the gate was dismantled outside—planning, co-ordinating events and transforming the building. Frankly, I think the Lady Usher of the Black Rod has been working 25 hours a day. All involved have displayed extraordinary commitment, skill and professionalism. They now have to continue to prepare the House for the momentous days ahead next week, when the eyes of the world will be upon this building. I hope we will all help them in carrying out those duties. I know I speak for the whole House when I thank the staff for their work and wish them well in completing it.