But the confirmation that Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani will be present suggests other Gulf leaders will also attend. The Foreign Office is refusing to release a full guest list at this stage for security reasons, and most leaders from the Middle East apart from the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, have not disclosed their plans to attend. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is expected to lead a delegation to London, although his attendance at the funeral has not yet been confirmed. Wang will be the most senior Asian political leader to attend the service at Westminster Abbey and among the representatives of authoritarian states, a grouping that also includes Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt. The Chinese vice-president, Wang Qishan, is to attend the Queen’s funeral in a move that has prompted complaints from a group of British Conservative MPs who have been banned from travelling to China due to their campaigns against Chinese repression. “The Queen is an inspiration not just to myself, but the entire world.” I figured that if my wife were here, she would want me to continue. “My wife, Shari – who is back in Canada – is the biggest fan of Queen Elizabeth. “I just continued for five and a- half hours, and to see it through makes me feel fulfilled. He said: “I was thinking that even if I did not get there, to Westminster, and it turned out to be too far for me to walk, that I was still paying my last respects to the Queen. Having only arrived in Britain on Wednesday, he had just finished a walking tour in central London when he managed to join the queue in Blackfriars, south London, on Thursday afternoon. Pesach Neussbaum, a retired computer company owner, from Montreal, Canada, described seeing the Queen’s coffin as a “very special and extraordinary” experience. He said: “It hits you how moving it all is and how much love and support there is for the Queen.”Ĭarney, who joined the queue at about 11.30am, went on: “It was difficult to find the end of it because the line kept on growing as I was walking towards it.” The moment he got to say his personal goodbye left him “struck by the realism” of everything that is happening. Marc Carney, 58, filed past the Queen’s coffin at 6.40pm after travelling from his home in Kent on Thursday morning. The Guardian reported earlier today that the Chinese vice-president, Wang Qishan, is to attend the Queen’s funeral in a move that has prompted complaints from a group of British Conservative MPs who have been banned from travelling to China due to their campaigns against Chinese repression. “Now the British elites are on their side.” “This is especially blasphemous to the memory of Elizabeth II, who is known to have served during world war two in the territorial defence ranks of the British Armed Forces fighting the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich. It said: “We view this British attempt to use a national tragedy that has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world for geopolitical purposes to settle scores with our country during the days of mourning as profoundly immoral. The Russian foreign ministry has said it is “profoundly immoral” that the country was not invited to send a delegate to the Queen’s state funeral on Monday. Vehicles from the motorcade of the US president, Joe Biden, have been spotted in London as the city prepares to receive hundreds of foreign dignitaries ahead of the Queen’s funeral.Ī group of MPs and peers under sanctions from China have expressed serious concerns about the Chinese government being invited to the funeral. The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has paid tribute to the Queen, reflecting on meeting her for the first time when he was just a child and saying Canadians “feel like they have lost a family member”.

Heathrow airport has announced that it will stop all flights for 15 minutes before the two-minute national silence on Monday and 15 minutes afterwards as a “mark of respect” to the royal family. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and the Scotland secretary, Alister Jack, joined other members of the Royal Company of Archers to stand vigil at the Queen’s coffin. The House of Commons will sit again from next Thursday and the coming recess will be cut nearly a week short, it has been announced. The Queen’s state funeral will “unite people across the globe” and “pay a fitting tribute to an extraordinary reign”, its organiser, the Duke of Norfolk, has said. People continue to join, with one woman describing the Queen’s lying-in-state as a “piece of history that will never be repeated”. The estimated waiting time is at least nine hours, according to the government tracker. Prince William said walking behind his grandmother’s hearse on Wednesday was “challenging” and “brought back memories”.Īs of 11pm, the queue stands at 4.9 miles long. 15 Sept 2022 23.01 BST A summary of today's developments

In the queue