Alison McGovern – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II
The tribute made by Alison McGovern, the Labour MP for Wirral South, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.
On behalf of everybody in the Wirral, particularly in my constituency, I extend our profound condolences to the royal family. We have all lost our Queen, but they have lost a beloved family member, and we hold them in our hearts.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle) mentioned, the Queen first came to my constituency in 1957 and visited the famous Port Sunlight village and the Duke of York cottages named after her father. Since then, many in the Wirral have felt strongly about the Queen and have supported all that she has done.
I want to talk, above all else, in favour of the Queen’s constancy. The news of the end Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s reign has felt like the ground we stand on shifting beneath our feet. All that we have known has changed. Down the years, our country has been drawn together in celebration and in sorrow by Her late Majesty and it simply feels impossible to know how to react without her. She had a peerless understanding of the country that we love, hard won through her life, which saw our country’s growth and also its emergence from the darkness of war. Reflecting on what her generation saw, I am in awe of them. They knew not only the pain of loss, but the overwhelming devastation of war.
We have heard so often about that profoundly important visit to Ireland in 2011 and her role as a peacebuilder. The Queen’s example to us all is that of patient constancy, which is, I believe, the best path to change. In her 20s, she said that she could not do what the men before her in her role could do, but that, unlike them, via modern communications, she could broadcast across nations. I think she was a fan of new technology—whether she was speaking to us all from the dawn of television or, as she did recently, speaking to us on Zoom from home during the pandemic, she was a marvel.
In politics, it seems so often that change comes too slowly, and when it does come, we fall back. When it comes to the Queen’s legacy, I ask myself how is it that our country makes progress. I do not think that any individual can make progress by themselves, but rather it comes through our institutions—those institutions that persist when individuals fail. That is what really shifts our country from darkness into light. That is progress, and it is what Her late Majesty made with the constitutional role that was hers. She could always see what the future had on offer, and she built a path for us all.
It has been utterly humbling to hear from leaders across the world, and I trust that that global outpouring brings her family comfort. Our country is not perfect, but in Her late Majesty’s example, we have seen not only the model of service, but the never-ending hope in our future that sprung eternal on these islands through her reign. Long live the King.
