It was an honour to give this tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Parliament on behalf of the people of Chesterfield and Staveley.

Deputy Speaker: Toby Perkins.

Toby Perkins: Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to speak on behalf of the people of Chesterfield and Staveley who share the shock, sadness, and pride at the passing of our beloved late Queen Elizabeth II and to send our condolences to King Charles III, who spoke so well just a few moments ago.

Last night, prayers at St Michael’s Church in Brimington were dedicated to her late Majesty and the bells on the famous Crooked Spire will be ringing muffled tones of mourning. Books of condolence have already been set up in Chesterfield Borough Council’s Contact Centre and others are appearing across the Borough as our town’s citizens come out to send their respect and regards to a truly remarkable women, who has embodied our nation as our Monarch for 70 years.

We have heard from so many people here who have had personal experience of meeting Her Majesty but last night a friend’s son posted a video, which has gone viral, of the moment his grandmother, sat in the Toby Carvery restaurant, heard of the Queen’s passing. Uncontrollably, she sobs, in the background you can hear her son’s bewilderment “but you never even knew her Mother”. But the British people didn’t have to meet our Queen to feel that we knew her or to feel bereaved at her loss. She was indeed a friend to so very many of us.  She has been the constant throughout our lives. At every celebration and grand occasion naturally, but more crucially, in times of peril, worry and heartbreak it was Her Majesty the Queen that we looked to.

The queen promised, on her coronation, to serve our nation faithfully and the dedication, wisdom, and fortitude that she’s shown throughout every day of that service has inspired so many of us. She loved our country. The four nations that make up our United Kingdom individually and collectively and she took great pride in the Commonwealth as she helped lead our nation through its changing place in the world. From being the Head of the British Empire to the Commonwealth to a prominent nation at the Head of the EU and subsequently into out post-Brexit future. She led us through two painful and divisive referendums without ever breaking her famous political impartiality and she was there when our nation was tortured by the cruel pandemic, bringing us together as so many of us sat there afraid and alone.

An image that says so much about her dedication to duty was the image of her sat alone at her beloved husband’s funeral. No one would have begrudged her being sat with a family member, but it was typical that she would want the world to see that she was also subject to the same restrictions, so painfully being observed by her people.

In closing, I’d like to say that we should all remember that her late Majesty’s family are grieving right now, yet forced, at the most painful moment, to grieve in public. Those organs of the press who believe they are defending Her Majesty the Queen by attacking her children or her grandchildren or claiming to know better than they do how her family should grieve, do our nation and our Royal Family a huge disservice.

The people of Chesterfield will always take pride in her selfless devotion and wish His Majesty King Charles III a long, happy, and successful reign.

God Save the King.