Senior politicians recall Her Majesty’s ‘warm spirit’ that brought comfort to all
THE Queen helped to comfort people and ease their nerves as they took part in official ceremonies, the Commons heard.
Conservative former transport secretary Grant Shapps told the Commons how the Queen had saved him from feeling embarrassed during his Privy Council swearing-in ceremony.
Sir John Redwood, a Conservative former minister in the Major government, meanwhile described the Queen as “understanding that everyone else ... was terrified” at official events, and sought to ease them.
As MPs took part in a rare Saturday sitting to pay tribute to the Queen, Mr Shapps recalled the “ancient and complex” process of becoming a privy counsellor at Buckingham Palace.
The Welwyn Hatfield MP said he did not understand the meaning of the phrase “brush her hand” as part of the ceremonial oath-taking. “Brush her hand? Was that an instruction to brush her hand with my hand, or a sleeve, or a handkerchief?” he said.
“And as I was about to ask, we were called into the actual performance of the great ceremony itself.”
Fifth in the line to become a privy counsellor, Mr Shapps said he was unable to watch what other ministers were doing ahead of him
He told the Commons: “She stretched out her bare ungloved right hand and to my surprise moved it towards my face, it moved towards my lips. I pursed my lips. It stuck!”
With a smack of his lips, Mr Shapps added: “In what felt like an age, she was trying to pull it away and then suddenly ... her hand pulled away.”
The former minister said he wanted the ground to “swallow me whole”.
But, performing an impression of the Queen, he added: “She looked me right in the eyes with those wonderful sparkling eyes, and as though to acknowledge what had happened and also to forgive me in one turn, she said ‘Yes’.
“We never spoke of it again – God Save the King.”
In his tribute to the Queen, Sir John Major told the Commons: “She was not just a consummate professional at those public events, but there was a warm spirit, the personality, and above all that understanding that everyone else at that event was terrified that something was going to go wrong, or that they hadn’t understood the protocol or that there was some magic way of doing it – as my right honourable friend [Mr Shapps] was explaining – that they had to get right.”
Sir John added: “But in the public events, the Queen always relaxed people and showed them there was no right way, because she was there for the people, she was there for the institution, she was there for the event, and that is what we can learn from.”
Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford described how the Queen’s “sense of mischief” also helped put people at ease.
Ms Cooper recalled a story she said had been told to her of a Privy Council meeting where then-international development secretary Clare Short’s phone went off.
However, Ms Short had not been able to find the phone to turn it off.
“The Queen simply said: ‘Oh dear, I do hope that wasn’t anyone important?’” Ms Cooper told MPs, to much laughter.
SNP MP Philippa Whitford said: “This chamber has been lifted by so many funny stories that demonstrate Her Majesty’s great sense of fun.
“But the most illuminating are those which show how she used humour to put people at ease, out of kindness.
“I think she’s probably delighted at the sheer amount of laughter that has been in this chamber over the last two days,” Dr Whitford added.