British taxpayers will think Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral was “money well spent”, a cabinet minister has said.
The new culture secretary Michelle Donelan said the Queen deserved Monday’s historic send-off, but she was unable to put a figure on what the cost might be.
She also revealed that around 250,000 people went through Westminster Hall to see the Queen lying-in-state.
Asked how much the event cost the taxpayer, Donelan told Sky News: “We haven’t got that total figure.
“But I think the taxpayer would argue that it was money well spent.”
Pressed on the costs, she added: “I’m not sure of the exact costings but, as I said, I think the British public would argue that that was money well spent.
“You saw so many thousands out there and I don’t think anybody can suggest that our late monarch didn’t deserve that send-off, given the duty and the selfless service that she committed to over 70 years.”
Donelan said it would be “downright preposterous” to suggest otherwise.
“It was great sense of the community coming together. I always think of our late monarch as the glue that brought society together,” she told the broadcaster.
Billions of people across the globe tuned in to watch the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday.
World leaders and royalty descended on London to pay their respects as part of a memorial like no other in modern history.
Thousands lined the streets of the capital to grab one last glimpse of the monarch’s coffin before she was laid to rest in Windsor.
Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 and came to the throne in 1952. She died at Balmoral Castle on September 8 aged 96 - after 70 years in the throne.