GREAT AND THE GOOD
Biggest security event in our history to protect world leaders at funeral
World leaders last night began arriving in London ahead of the Queen’s funeral – amid the biggest security operation ever seen in the UK.
US president Joe Biden and Japan’s emperor Naruhito were among the first of more than 100 royals, heads of state and diplomats attending.
Biden landed in the UK on Air Force One with the first lady, Jill Biden, shortly after 5pm.
PM Liz Truss was due to host the Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Polish president Andrzej Duda and Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin at No10.
A planned meeting with Biden was cancelled and will instead take place at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
Yesterday she met New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern and her Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at Chevening House in Kent.
With two million mourners expected to line the streets, the funeral poses an epic challenge for police and security services – far surpassing the 2012 Olympics and June’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
As well as the 10,000 uniformed off icers on duty, snipers wil l be stationed on rooftops and drones will provide security chiefs with constant visual updates.
Every lamppost on the route has been examined and sealed and people known to have royal obsessions are being monitored by a special team.
International royalty flying in includes Spain’s King Felipe, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Monaco’s Prince Albert II and King Harald V of Norway.
Representatives of the royal families of Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and
Greece will also be there.
European leaders attending include French president Emmanuel Macron, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Italian president Sergio Mattarel la and Finland’s Sauli Niinistö.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel will be there, as will Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife Olena. Neither Russia nor Belarus has been invited. The mi l itary regime of Myanmar, accused of atrocities, has also been left out, while Iran will be represented only by an ambassador.
Westminster Abbey could not fit in all the heads of state the Queen met, so former US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump were not invited. But Royal Family favourite Sir David Attenborough, born 17 days after the Queen and producer of several of her Christmas speeches, will join mourners, as will her racing manager John Warren.
Her six living former prime ministers – John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson – are all expected to attend.
The 2000 guests will include delegates picked f r om across the Commonwealth. The Maor i k ing, K i ing i Tuheitia, will be among New Zealand’s delegation, while Canada selected Killing Eve star Sandra Oh.
Guests must park at a site in west London and travel to the Abbey on shared coaches, although Biden will travel in his armoured limo, dubbed The Beast, and Israeli president Isaac Herzog was also exempted.
The doors to Westminster Abbey will open at 8am tomorrow, three hours before the funeral begins.
The state gun carriage bearing her casket will be drawn by 98 Royal Navy sailors in a tradition dating back to the funeral of Queen Victoria.
The procession, led by the Pipes & Drums of Scottish and Irish Regiments, the Brigade of Gurkhas, and the Royal Air Force, will wind through New Palace Yard, Parliament Square and Broad Sanctuary and the Sanctuary, before reaching the Abbey.
New black ceremonial robes to be worn by clerics have been worked on for three years.
Jane Pavey, who is part of nine members of the Guild of St Faith, which repairs Abbey vestments, said: “They are elaborate, intricate and rather beautifully done. They will look splendid.”
After the funeral, the Queen’s coffin will be taken to Windsor Castle for another service and later interred at a private family ceremony there.
Hundreds of soldiers took part in rehearsals at Windsor yesterday. Lieutenant colonel Fred Wel ls, Commander 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, said: “There’s a range of emotions, huge sadness that we’ve lost our colonel-in-chief but at the same time there’s a real sense of excitement that we’re taking part in something quite special.”
What we are taking part in is quite special