Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen

Richard Graham Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Some wonderful tributes have been given from across the House to a simply amazing woman, our nation’s unshakeable rock in storms, our favourite granny and, above all, our Queen —much loved, and now deeply mourned in Gloucester, across the United Kingdom and abroad. Her late Majesty touched lives not just in the 14 countries for which she was Head of State, or even the 54 countries that make up the Commonwealth family, but across the world.

On 1 July, I represented Her Majesty’s Government at the inauguration of President Marcos of the Philippines, and passed on congratulations from the world’s longest-serving Head of State to its most recently elected. The President’s face lit up. He said, “The Queen is amazing. We all watched the platinum jubilee celebrations, and she has set the platinum standard for Heads of State.” Whatever our individual memories of Her late Majesty—whether of individual meetings, seeing her at visits such as those to Gloucester in 2003 and 2009, or simply watching her smash hits on TV with James Bond and Paddington Bear—he was right: the Queen is the platinum standard; the extraordinary example of leadership through service to which we all aspire.

I offer the royal family my sympathy and that of Gloucester residents. We are all grateful for that extraordinary legacy. None of us will ever forget our world’s Queen or her second great Elizabethan age. I believe that King Charles’s own long record of service, and his moving speech this evening, should give us all great confidence for the future. Thank you, Ma’am. God save the King.