The Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP has published the following statement expressing her condolences on the passing away of Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II:
“I always feel a deep sense of gratitude that I have been elected to serve in the House of Commons, and never more so than during times like these when Parliament is right at the heart of events of profound importance in our national life.
Since the announcement on Thursday, a flood of heartfelt tributes have been pouring forth from across the country and around the world, including two days of debate in Parliament. In the first of these, I took the opportunity to express my sense of personal sadness regarding the loss of Her Majesty.
On behalf of my constituents in Chipping Barnet, I offer my sympathy and condolences to the Royal Family on their bereavement.
I know that this is a time of great emotion for many of us. Whether or not we had ever had the honour to meet the late Queen, she has been such an enduring presence in our lives that it feels as if we have all lost a member of our family.
I had the privilege of meeting Her Late Majesty on a number of occasions during the seven years I served in Government. I was always struck by how down to earth she was. As former Prime Minister Johnson put it, she went out of her way not to seem grand.
She was a remarkable woman with great charm, warmth and kindness, typified by that lovely smile that adorned so many hundreds of millions of images published of her during her record 70 year reign.
She had a habit of coming out with unnervingly frank and direct comments on matters in the news. And she so often had a twinkle in her eye, deploying that rather mischievous sense of humour of which many have spoken as we mourn her passing.
I have to confess that I was so star struck in her presence that I scarcely felt able to string a sentence together, but if she noticed that, she was far too kind and polite to say so.
One rather unsettling moment in her presence was when I was summoned to Balmoral in 2012 to receive the seals of office, after my appointment as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. On entering the sitting room at Balmoral I very nearly trod on a corgi!
I was privileged to accompany Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh on their 2014 and 2016 visits to Northern Ireland. The late Queen’s enthusiasm for that very special part of her kingdom was always clear.
I recall an audience which she was kind enough to grant me at Hillsborough Castle when she remarked gleefully that she always felt a sense of such excitement flying into Belfast and catching site of the Harland and Woolf cranes.
She said “You know there is only one place in the world you can be when you see those cranes”.
As Northern Ireland Secretary, I and my team had provided some suggestions on the itinerary for the 2014 visit which I felt might be a little more daring that the usual Royal tour.
So it was with some nervousness that I arrived at the first stage of the programme at St George’s market where Her Majesty mingled amongst the crowds in way which would have been inconceivable in previous years. One teenager even managed to snatch a selfie with Her Majesty!
She was then escorted around the old Crumlin Road Gaol by the First and Deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, both of whom had spent periods incarcerated in it when it was a working prison.
And finally a walk round the set of Game of Thrones in the Paint Hall Studios became something of a social media phenomenon, though Her Majesty had politely, and perhaps wisely, declined an invitation to sit in the Iron Throne.
I believe history will record her role in promoting peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland as one of the greatest achievements of Queen Elizabeth II.
She herself suffered personal tragedy as a result of the Troubles when her cousin Lord Mountbatten and his grandson were murdered by the Provisional IRA.
Yet she was willing to shake hands with Martin McGuinness and even welcome him to her home in Windsor.
And her visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 will be forever remembered as a landmark moment. As it unfolded on our television screens you could see that it was history happening before our eyes.
Britain and Ireland share hundreds of years of contested history. When you arrive as Northern Ireland Secretary, your introductory reading includes a summary of the history of the island of Ireland starting in 1171, illustrating that aspects even of the very distant past still have an impact today.
And there can be no doubt that for centuries to come, people will recall that 2011 State Visit as a turning point which played a significant role in moving on from that conflicted past, towards a better future. It was a moment of healing and reconciliation.
In conclusion, Her Majesty was the last Head of State anywhere in the world to have donned a uniform in World War Two. As our new Prime Minister said, Queen Elizabeth was the rock on which was built the modern nation we are today.
She has been an unchanging constant in all our lives, there for us in good times and in bad. As we move from the Elizabethan to a new Carolingian age, this loss truly marks the end of an era. Without her presence, life in this country will never be quite the same again. We will never see her like again.
Now we have seen our new King proclaimed from the balcony at St James’s Palace, with the proclamation repeated across the land including outside Hendon Town Hall yesterday. I send my warmest wishes and loyal support to His Majesty, King Charles III.”
As well as taking part in the formal tributes to Her Majesty in the House of Commons on Friday, Theresa Villiers was present at the gathering of both House of Parliament today in Westminster Hall where addresses were formally presented to HM King Charles.
As a Privy Councillor (an honour granted to Cabinet and certain other senior political figures), she attended the Accession Council on Saturday to hear the first formal proclamation of King Charles III as our new monarch. This centuries old ceremony was previously a secret one but in a break with tradition, cameras were let in to broadcast the event around the world.
Yesterday Theresa joined members of Barnet Council to hear the Mayor of the borough read out the proclamation outside Hendon Town Hall.
