David Lammy – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

I rise on behalf of the people of Tottenham, who mourn the loss of Her late Majesty very greatly. In reflecting on Her Majesty, I begin by evoking my parents’ generation, who arrived and are described as part of the Windrush generation. My mother was the kind of woman for whom there were only two important people in our house: the first was Jesus Christ and the second was Her Majesty the Queen. Anything to do with the royal family—many will understand this—involved a lot of memorabilia in our West Indian front room.

It is also the grace, dignity and strength with which the Queen approached the Commonwealth for which she should be remembered. She guided the Commonwealth from a community of countries that had been colonised to a voluntary association of 56 countries. She travelled to 117 countries in the course of those 70 years. Although she was assiduous in her duties, there was a sense that she knew right from wrong. In 1979, she went to Zambia. It was controversial at the time, and it heralded the independence of then Rhodesia and what we now know as Zimbabwe. She was rumoured to be very concerned about the apartheid regime in South Africa, and she had a long-standing friendship with Nelson Mandela. All that is noted as part of her sense of duty and her commitment to the Commonwealth.

However, as I said earlier, it is also important to remember her supreme governance of the Church of England. She did it quietly, but up and down the country, in every constituency, her place at the head of that very important English, British, Anglican institution is something that we should hold very dear indeed.

I have my own small story to tell, if you will allow me, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is about the day I became a Privy Counsellor, which was the most important day of my life. It was 5 November 2008, and on that day I was very sleepy indeed. I was sleepy because my friend Barack Obama had become President of the United States the day before, and I had not slept when I got to Buckingham Palace at six o’clock in the evening. I knelt on the footstool; my eyes closed; I bowed—and I headed towards the Queen’s lap. She reached out and put her hand on my bald head. She was generous, and she was gracious in all the Privy Council meetings that I attended subsequently, for which I am grateful. She understood the importance of Barack Obama’s becoming the 44th President of the United States of America, and she carried herself with great dignity.

I was at Dumfries House yesterday when I heard the news. Prince Charles was unable to meet us. We were there to discuss the Commonwealth, and his commitment to skills and young people. He will be a very, very good King.