UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has hailed Queen Elizabeth as the rock on which modern Britain was built following her death on Thursday (08.09.22).
Liz Truss has hailed Queen Elizabeth as the rock on which modern Britain was built
The new Conservative leader marked what she called “the passing of the second Elizabethan age” in an address from a podium outside No10 Downing Street on Thursday night after Buckingham Palace confirmed that the British monarch had passed away peacefully aged 96 at Balmoral.
Truss - the fifteenth Prime Minister the Queen worked appointed during her 70-year reign – said the monarch had been “a personal inspiration to me and to many Britons”.
She added: “Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her.
“It’s an extraordinary achievement to have presided with such dignity and grace for 70 years.”
Noting the Queen “touched the lives of millions around the world”, Mrs Truss added, “God save the King,” before confirming Prince Charles would succeed the Queen as King Charles III – a title confirmed moments later by Clarence House.
Speaking of Charles, she said: “We offer him our loyalty and devotion. And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country, exactly as Her Majesty would have wished, by saying the words, ‘God save the King’.”
Party leaders and ex-prime ministers and heads of state joined Ms Truss in paying tribute to the Queen.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the nation mourned the passing of our “greatest ever monarch”.
He added: “Above the clashes of politics, she stood not for what the nation fought over, but what it agreed upon. For 70 years, Queen Elizabeth II stood as the head of our country. But, in spirit, she stood amongst us.”
Mrs Truss’ predecessor Boris Johnson said the Queen’s passing was the UK’s “saddest day”.
He added she possessed a “unique and simple power to make us happy”, stating: “That is why we loved her. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest-serving, and in many ways the finest, monarch in our history.”
Former Conservative PM John Major said the monarch had a “wonderful generosity of spirit”.
And ex-Labour PM Sir Tony Blair said Britain had lost “the matriarch of our nation, the figure who more than any other brought our country together, kept us in touch with our better nature, personified everything which makes us proud to be British”.
Gordon Brown, Mr Blair’s successor as Labour PM, said the Elizabeth II had “served this country to the last” and that the “entire world” was in mourning.
David Cameron, former Tory PM, said the late monarch had been “a rock of strength for our nation and the Commonwealth ... There can simply be no finer example of dignified public duty and unstinting service.”
Theresa May, another of Mrs Truss’s predecessors at No 10, said she had been “our constant throughout this entire Elizabethan era”.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Queen’s death was a “profoundly sad moment”, while Wales’s first minister Mark Drakeford said the Queen’s death was “an immense loss” and spoke of her “long and exceptional life”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the Queen represented “duty and courage, as well as warmth and compassion”.
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