Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Jason McCartney Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

I rise on behalf of my constituents to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen’s decades of service to our nation—decades of service delivered with humility, with warmth, with wisdom, and with gentle humour.

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for woods and trees, I wrote to all my local schools earlier this year inviting them to take part in the Queen’s green canopy scheme—planting a tree for the jubilee. I visited many of those schools, and we planted the tree. Afterwards, we had a Q&A session. I was often asked if I knew Boris. “Yes, he is my boss,” I would say—or “was my boss”. Was I rich? I tried to not really answer that one. Then, of course, I would always be asked whether I had ever met the Queen. I would say, “Yes, a number of times—I have been very fortunate”, and the children would gasp with excitement. I would tell them about the number of times I had met her while, as a young Royal Air Force officer, I was based at RAF West Raynham in Norfolk, near Fakenham. Sandringham was just up the road, so Her Majesty was a regular visitor to our RAF station.

Some 20 years after that, as an MP, I was invited to Buckingham Palace, as MPs are, for an audience with Her Majesty. She was asking me about my constituency, and I told her that the market town of Holmfirth was in my patch. I said, “Your Majesty, it is where they film ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ on BBC One”, and her face lit up with a big smile. I do not know whether she watched it or not, but to this day I have a lovely image of her sitting down in an armchair on a Sunday teatime, after a busy week, turning on BBC One, and enjoying the gentle antics of Nora Batty, Compo and Cleggy—not that Cleggy! [Laughter.] And—relax.

The past 48 hours have been a very emotional time for our nation, but having listened to my constituents today, I know that they were greatly comforted by His Majesty the King’s reassuring and deeply personal address to the nation last night. I look forward to heading back to Yorkshire this evening so that I can be at Huddersfield town hall tomorrow for the royal proclamation. Let me end by simply saying this: God bless Her Majesty the Queen, and God save the King.