Starmer hails the Queen's 'special, personal relationship with us all'

Labour’s Keir Starmer hails the Queen’s ‘special, personal relationship with us all’ in Larkin-quoting Commons tribute that praises her as the link between ‘the history we cherish and the present we own’

• The opposition leader hailed her ‘total commitment to service and duty’
• Praised her 70 years ‘at the heart of this nation’s life’ in Commons speech
• ‘She did not simply reign over us, she lived alongside us,’ he said. 
• Full coverage: Click here to see all our coverage of the Queen’s passing

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed the Queen’s ‘special, personal relationship with us all’ as he led his party’s tributes to the late monarch in the Commons today.

In a special sitting of the Commons the opposition leader hailed her ‘total commitment to service and duty, a deep devotion to the country, the Commonwealth, and the people she loved’, adding: ‘In return for that, we loved her.’

As MPs began a lengthy sitting to pay tribute to the former monarch, who died yesterday after 70 years on the throne, he said she spent those decades ‘at the heart of this nation’s life’.

‘She did not simply reign over us, she lived alongside us,’ he said. 

‘She shared in our hopes and our fears, our joy and our pain, our good times and our bad.

‘Our Queen played a crucial role as the thread between the history we cherish and the present we own.

As MPs began a lengthy sitting to pay tribute to the former monarch, who died yesterday after 70 years on the throne, he said she spent those decades ‘at the heart of this nation’s life’.

Sir Keir was knighted for his service as director of public prosecutions by the now King Charles III

‘A reminder that our generational battle against the evil of fascism, or the emergence of a new Britain out of the rubble of the Second World War, do not belong only to the past, but are the inheritance of each and every one of us.

‘A reminder that the creativity, the hard work, the enterprise that has always defined this nation is as abundant now as it ever was.

‘A reminder that the prospect of a better future still burns brightly.

‘Never was this link more important than when our country was plunged into lockdown at the start of the pandemic. Her simple message: that we would see family again, that we would see friends again, that we would be together again, gave people strength and courage when they needed it most.’

Sir Keir, who was knighted by the now King Charles for ‘services to law and criminal justice’ in 2014, went on to quote the poet Philip Larkin, saying: ‘In times when nothing stood, but worsened or grew strange, there was one constant good, she did not change.’

‘It feels like we are once again in a moment in our history where – as Larkin put it – things are ”growing strange”.’

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