Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen

Theresa Villiers Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

I feel I cannot match the eloquence of the many wonderful speeches we have heard today, but I want to share for a few moments my personal sadness at this terrible loss. I am sure that sense of sadness is shared also by my constituents in Chipping Barnet.

Her late Majesty was a woman of remarkable charm, warmth and kindness, typified by the lovely smile that adorned so many hundreds of millions of images of her published during her 70-year reign. She could come out with rather unnervingly direct comments sometimes on matters in the news, often with a twinkle in her eye, deploying that mischievous sense of humour about which so many have spoken today.

When I met Her late Majesty, I was so star-struck in her presence that I scarcely felt able to string a sentence together. If she noticed, she was far too kind and polite to mention it. Her enthusiasm for Northern Ireland featured in many of our conversations during my time as Secretary of State. At an audience she kindly granted me at Hillsborough Castle, she remarked gleefully that she always felt a sense of such excitement flying into Belfast and catching sight of the Harland & Wolff cranes. She said, “You know there is only one place in the world you can be when you see those landmark cranes.”

As Northern Ireland Secretary, my team and I had provided some suggestions on the itinerary for the 2014 royal visit. I felt they might be a little more daring than previous plans for the visit, so it was with some nervousness that I arrived at the first stage of the programme at St George’s Market, which saw Her late Majesty mingle among the crowds in a way that would have been inconceivable in Belfast just a few years previously. Later, a walk by Her late Majesty around the set of “Game of Thrones” in the Paint Hall Studios was a social media phenomenon, but politely—and probably wisely—she declined the invitation to sit on the Iron Throne.

History, I am confident, will record her role in promoting peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland as one of the greatest achievements of Queen Elizabeth II. As we have heard and as we all know, she suffered personal tragedy at the hands of the Provisional IRA, yet she was willing to shake hands with the late Martin McGuinness and even welcome him to her home in Windsor. Her visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 was truly a landmark moment. Britain and Ireland share hundreds of years of contested and often violent history, and for centuries to come I am sure people will recall that 2011 state visit as a turning point that played a significant role in moving us on from a conflicted past towards a better future.

Her late Majesty was the last Head of State anywhere in the world to have donned a uniform in world war two. As our new Prime Minister said, Queen Elizabeth was the rock upon which we built the modern nation we are today. She has been an unchanging constant in all our lives, there for us in good times and bad. As we move on from the Elizabethan to a new Carolingian age, this loss truly marks the end of an era. Without her presence, life in this country will never be the same again. God save the King.