Day 1 – Parliament tributes, King Charles returns to London
King Charles III to address nation at 6pm
King Charles III will make his broadcast to the nation at around 6pm according to the house speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
King to be officially proclaimed on Saturday at Accession Council
Buckingham Palace announces Accession Council will officially proclaim Charles as King Charles III at 10 am on Saturday in the State Apartments of St James’s Palace.
Parliament tributes from Commons speaker, PM and Starmer
MPs are in Parliament to pay tribute, a minute silence followed by a speech from the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, followed by a speech by PM Liz Truss and leader of the opposition Sir Keir Starmer.
“One of the greatest leaders the world has ever known”, and the “rock on which modern Britain was built on”.
Liz Truss
“Tributes have been sent from every continent around the world,” she adds.
She says: “We remember the pledge she gave on her 21st birthday to dedicate her life to service.
“The whole house will agree – never has a promise been so completely fulfilled.”
Sir Keir Starmer pays tribute – ‘deep loss’
“Our country, our people, this house, are united in mourning,” he says, adding that the moment is a “deep and private loss for the Royal Family”.
“Yet it’s one we all share because Queen Elizabeth created a special personal relationship with us all.
“That relationship was built on the attributes that defined her reign, her total commitment to service and duty, her deep devotion to the country, the Commonwealth and the people she loved.
“In return for that, we loved her.”
Sir Keir Starmer
Sir Keir thanked the Queen for her messages of comfort during the pandemic, and reads a Philip Larkin poem written for her Silver Jubilee.
Former PM Boris Johnson – ‘familial sense of loss’
Boris Johnson tribute: “Millions of us are trying to understand why we are feeling this deep and personal and almost form familial sense of loss.
“Perhaps it’s partly that she’s always been there, a changeless human reference point in British life.
“We are coming to understand in her death the full magnitude of what she did for us all.
“Think of what we asked that 25-year-old woman all those years ago – to be the person so globally trusted that her image should be on every unit of our currency, every postage stamp, the person in whose name all justice is dispensed in this country, every law passed, to whom every minister of the crown swears allegiance and for whom every member of our armed services is pledged if necessary to lay down their lives.
“Think of what we asked of her in that moment. Not just to be the living embodiment in her DNA in the history and continuity and unity of this country but to the figurehead of our entire system, the keystone in the vast arch of the British state, a role that only she could fulfil.”
King Charles and Camilla return to London
The new king is on his way back to London from Balmoral – he was pictured alongside his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort. He is set to have a private meeting with the newly-appointed PM Liz Truss before making a televised speech to the nation.
Prince Harry left Scotland around 8:30 am and was pictured back in Heathrow not long ago.
It is not known whether Prince William has left Scotland.
Bells toll in Queen’s memory
The bells of Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and in Windsor at noon in tribute to the Queen.
