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‘Elizabeth the Great’ ... Boris leads the personal tributes

By Kumail Jaffer Political Reporter

BORIS Johnson has hailed the Queen as ‘Elizabeth the Great’ and said that no other monarch has served Britain for so long or so well.

The Prime Minister led MPs in paying tribute to Her Majesty in a Humble Address in the Commons yesterday to mark her upcoming Platinum Jubilee.

Politicians from all sides of the House praised the Queen and told personal anecdotes about her ahead of the four-day celebration next week.

Mr Johnson said: ‘Today we pay tribute to a head of state whose length of service and dedication to duty are simply without parallel.

‘The only monarch most of us in this country have ever known and the rock to which our nation and our people have been anchored throughout all that the past 70 years have thrown at us.

‘No monarch, by her efforts and dedication and achievement, better deserves the attribute of greatness. And for me, she is already Elizabeth the Great.

‘In our history, no monarch has ever served this country so long as this one with the first Platinum Jubilee ever – but far more importantly, no monarch has ever served it so well.’ The PM recalled the moment in the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony when the Queen – played by a stunt double – ‘parachuted out of a helicopter in a pink dress’.

The tributes also struck a sombre note as the monarch will mark the jubilee without her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that the holiday weekend will be ‘tinged with sadness’ and said he hopes the nation’s celebrations will ‘further comfort and reassure her’.

Mr Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May – who reportedly became close to the Queen during her premiership – praised her ‘assiduous’ work of going through the official red box of Government despatches every day.

Opposition MPs also spoke fondly of Her Majesty during the two-hour session.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Queen ‘is the personification of our nation’s great history’. He added that historians will remember ‘her commitment to her people, her dedication to duty, her steely resolve, [which] made her the perfect monarch for the people and the times that she led’.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey recalled her smile as Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977 and expressed hope of a similar scene to mark an Emma Raducanu victory this year.

Mr Johnson said the Queen has carried out 21,000 official engagements in 100 countries.

JUBILEE COUNTDOWN

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