Keir Starmer paid an emotional tribute to the Queen as MPs united in the Commons to honour her memory.
The Labour leader heralded Britain’s “greatest monarch” whose loss “robs this country of its stillest point, its greatest comfort, at precisely the time we need those things most”.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral Castle on Thursday, aged 96 — bringing her 70-year reign to an end.
The House of Commons was packed with MPs, all dressed in black, who gathered to pay their own tributes to the late monarch.
Starmer praised the Queen for 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,” he said. “And it is because of that great, shared love that we grieve today.
“She did not simply reign over us, she lived alongside us.”
Starmer recalled how the late monarch provided comfort to many during the difficulty of the coronavirus pandemic, when restrictions kept families, friends and loved ones apart.
At the time, she told the country: “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
“It wasn’t simply the message that allowed a shaken nation to draw upon those reserves, it was the fact she was the messenger,” Starmer said.
“Covid closed the front doors of every home in the country, it made all our lives smaller and more remote.
“But she was able to reach beyond that to reassure us and steel us.
“At the time we were most alone, at a time we had been driven apart, she held the nation close, in a way no one else could have done. For that, we say: thank you.”
Starmer referenced the words of the late poet Philip Larkin on the Queen’s silver jubilee of 1977 to illustrate the grief many feel at her passing at the stability her leadership represented.
Quoting the late poet, he said: “In times when nothing stood, but worsened or grew strange, there was one constant good, she did not change.”
The Labour leader appealed for unity amid the political division as he called on MPs to “pull together”.
“The late Queen would want us to redouble our efforts, to turn our collar up and face the storm. To carry on,” he said.
“This House is a place where ideas and ideals are debated. Of course, that leads to passionate disagreement, of course, temperatures can run high.
“But we all do it in pursuit of something greater. We do it because we believe we can make this great country and its people greater still.
“At this moment of uncertainty, where our country feels caught between a past it cannot relive and a future yet to be revealed, we must always remember one of the great lessons of our Queen’s reign.
“That we are always better when we rise above the petty, the trivial, the day to day, to focus on the things that really matter. The things that unite us, rather than those which divide us.”
He added: “Our Elizabethan age may now be over but her legacy will live on forever.”
Liz Truss, who met the Queen only days ago after becoming prime minister, said the late monarch had fulfilled her promise to “dedicate her life to service”.
“As we meet today, we remember the pledge she made on her 21st birthday to dedicate her life to service,” she said.
“The whole House will agree, never has a promise been so completely fulfilled.”
Truss revealed she had spoken to King Charles on Thursday evening. Although he has already succeeded the throne, tomorrow he will be declared King by the Accession Council.
Britain has now entered a period of national mourning that will last for 10 days.