Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

Sadly, I never met the Queen. It was something I had always hoped to do. However, as for most people in our country and the Commonwealth, she was always a positive presence in my life.

We remember that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was not only our Head of State and the mother of our nation, but had the same responsibilities and duties for the peoples of our dependent sovereign territories—faraway places such as the Falkland Islands—and for the Governments and peoples of the Commonwealth nations around the world. That was brought home to me in an amazing way when I was chairman of the all-party group on Gibraltar.

Gibraltar National Day is today, 10 September, when Gibraltar celebrates its unique identity and its Britishness. Normally, there is a huge rally in Casemates Square, which is right in the middle of Gibraltar. It is a fantastic occasion, when the whole place is festooned with Union flags and the red and white of the Gibraltar flag. Today, the celebrations have been postponed until next year, and the proclamation of King Charles III was shown on the screens in Casemates Square. Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister, spoke yesterday of a “cloud of sorrow” over the Rock. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment had a 96-gun salute.

In happier times, in the diamond jubilee year of 2012, the National Day rally had a huge picture of the Queen, and every platform speaker expressed thanks and appreciation for Her Majesty’s service and spoke of their pride in their Britishness and in their Queen, referring to the fact that she had visited Gibraltar. On the platform that day, Fabian used a phrase that I had not heard before but that encapsulates how the Queen was a great unifier of many different peoples and nations. He said that the people of Gibraltar, other sovereign territories and the Commonwealth are all part of the “great British family”—even more so in Gibraltar, a small piece of rock, with a real melting pot of different religions and cultures, within physical sight of the north African coast. Everyone was united on that day, with an outpouring of love, pride and appreciation for our monarch. It reminded me of that old Latin quote, “civis romanus sum”—“I am a Roman citizen”—which one could be, from Africa to northern Britannia, regardless of one’s place of birth or religion.

Yesterday evening, I rushed back to my constituency to attend a service at St Peter’s church in Filton. The congregation was told by the Rev. Lizzie Gregory that it was not a service of commemoration—that will come—but a time for the community to come together, support one other, grieve together and give thanks. It was a wonderful service and it was great to see so many people there. Most had come on foot from nearby. I could sense the pride, depth of emotion and the community supporting one another.

I do not normally quote French Heads of State, unless they were born in Corsica, but President Macron’s comments on the passing of the Queen sum up how we and the rest of the world saw her:

“To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was The Queen. She will be with all of us forever.”