Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

It is with great sadness that I stand today, on behalf of the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke, to share in our collective grief at the loss of the grandmother of the nation, Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Like the constituencies of many across this House, Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke was blessed to host Her late Majesty the Queen on a few occasions. This went all the way back to 1949, when the then Princess visited the potteries, in the mother town of Burslem. She returned in 1955, visiting 30,000 excited schoolchildren at the old home of Stoke City football club, the Victoria Ground. She visited again in 1999, when she came to the Dudson Centre, meeting members of the touring Hallé orchestra.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) was right when he said that we allowed ourselves to believe Her late Majesty the Queen to be eternal. In preparation for this speech, I reflected on some words from the famous Stoke-on-Trent author Arnold Bennett, who said

“We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is.”

Bennett is right, in that we shall no longer have Her late Majesty the Queen as a physical presence in our lives—I have tried to explain that to my daughter Amelia, who, only on Tuesday, was on FaceTime to me while I was lucky enough sit here in this Palace of Westminster and was saying, “Daddy meet the Queen”—but Her late Majesty’s legacy will continue to live on forever, in generations yet to come. Her dedication to public service and duty, her national pride and her unwavering personal faith provide lessons for us all to pass down to our children and grandchildren, enabling us to help support her successor, our King, in taking us forward into the future, unsure of what lies ahead but collectively empowering us to stand shoulder to shoulder, undeterred in our love and belief in our United Kingdom. The people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke, including me, give our heartfelt condolences to His Majesty King Charles III and his family at this time, for they have lost not only their Queen, but a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. As we pray that Her late Majesty the Queen lies in eternal peace and happiness, myself and the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke wish to bear our true faith and allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, as she would have wanted. God save the King.