Accessible queue to see Queen’s coffin shuts as main queue wait time drops to 22 hoursThere are problems for people who are looking to join the accessible queue, which was set up for people who have health conditions that mean they need help attending the lying in state.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said that it is at capacity for today, and wristbands are not being given out at the moment. It has warned against people trying to join that line to see the Queen’s coffin until it reopens.
Meanwhile for people in the main queue that still is trailing in to Southwark Park five miles away from Westminster Hall, there’s some good news as the wait time has been revised downwards to a mere 22 hours. The queue tracker can be watched online here.
The accessible queue is at capacity for today and entry for allocation of wristbands is currently paused
Those with wristbands and entry times will still be able to view the Lying-in-State
Please do not attempt to join until it resumes
Check back for further updates pic.twitter.com/rrpqTlvwyu
— Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (@DCMS) September 16, 2022 Key events
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The King has just been seen arriving at Westminster Hall after leaving Buckingham Palace, his car being cheered by crowds as they drove past.
The vigil is now expected to begin at closer to 7.45pm, in less than ten minutes’ time.
We’re just waiting for King Charles and his siblings to begin the vigil over the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall, which will begin shortly.
He, along with Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and Prince Edward will stand guard at the catafalque from about 7:30pm for 15 minutes.
In a ceremony known as the vigil of the princes, the Queen’s children will stand at each corner of the coffin.
The tradition only started with George V when he died in 1936, according to Sky News.
The guard has just changed around the coffin, which suggests that the royals are not far away.
It will repeat a ceremony they enacted on Monday, where they stood watch as her coffin lay at rest in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
Prince and Princess of Wales watch New Zealand troops perform haka – videoAccessible queue to see Queen’s coffin shuts as main queue wait time drops to 22 hoursThere are problems for people who are looking to join the accessible queue, which was set up for people who have health conditions that mean they need help attending the lying in state.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said that it is at capacity for today, and wristbands are not being given out at the moment. It has warned against people trying to join that line to see the Queen’s coffin until it reopens.
Meanwhile for people in the main queue that still is trailing in to Southwark Park five miles away from Westminster Hall, there’s some good news as the wait time has been revised downwards to a mere 22 hours. The queue tracker can be watched online here.
The accessible queue is at capacity for today and entry for allocation of wristbands is currently paused
Those with wristbands and entry times will still be able to view the Lying-in-State
Please do not attempt to join until it resumes
Check back for further updates pic.twitter.com/rrpqTlvwyu
— Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (@DCMS) September 16, 2022 New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has spoken to ITV after arriving in the UK for the Queen’s funeral. She has already been seen paying her respects to the Queen’s coffin during the lying in state on Friday.
Ardern said she felt privileged to have the Queen to look up to as a female leader.
She added: “In New Zealand’s case having not one but two female prime ministers that have gone before me, I’ve said before there was nothing ever that suggested to me that I couldn’t be a woman in leadership because I was a woman.
“I do put that down collectively to the fact that with all those role models around me, some at further distance than others, but nonetheless role models.”
King Charles is “concerned” about how people will manage what is going to be a “difficult winter”, according to Wales’s first minister, Mark Drakeford.
Drakeford met Charles at the Welsh parliament in Cardiff Bay on Friday lunchtime, after a session where he gave his condolences to the new monarch and Charles’ addressed parliamentarians (see 1.09pm).
The first minister told Talk TV: “The King has always had a very direct interest in the things that are happening in contemporary Wales, the future of our agriculture, the impact of climate change. He mentioned the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and how that will impact on people here in Wales.”
He added: “He [Charles] is concerned as to how people will manage through what is going to be a difficult winter.
“He was interested to tell me about some of the projects that he has heard of, or become involved in dealing, for example, with food waste, making sure that we don’t waste a precious resource when some people might be going without.
“Interested, as always, in renewable energy generation here in Wales, and how it might play a bigger part in future energy security.”
Details are continuing to emerge on some of the people that will be among the 2,000 guests attending the Queen’s funeral on Monday.
Seven Victoria Cross and 10 George Cross medal recipients will be at the service, including soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as former police officers. The group represents the Commonwealth, with one from New Zealand and four from Australia.
The group includes George Cross holder Jim Beaton, who was Princess Anne’s personal police officer in 1974 when she was ambushed by a gunman who tried to kidnap her. Beaton shielded the Princess Royal from the gunman, and was wounded in the process.
Willie Apiata and Johnson Beharry are two of those attending who were awarded Victoria Crosses for their service in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively.
As well as the former servicemen will be the founder of an LGBTQ+ choir network, Hsien Chew, who was made an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in June.
Chew set up the Proud Voices network that brings together choirs in the UK and Ireland, and was honoured for voluntary and charitable services to the LGBTQ+ community.
“Obviously it’s an incredible privilege and I am really flattered to be a part of this and to be able to experience what is a really unique period in history,” he said.
Prince William has said the Queen will be “looking down” on her funeral service during a visit to an army barracks in Surrey on Friday, where he and the Princess of Wales met troops from the Commonwealth.
William and Catherine spoke to military personnel from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, who have been rehearsing this week for a procession at the Queen’s funeral on Monday.
The prince, talking to troops from Australia, was heard saying the difference between the celebrations in June and the funeral preparations shows “the highs and lows of it all”, according to PA Media. He was heard speaking with troops from the New Zealand Defence Force about how the Queen would be keeping an eye on Monday’s proceedings.
Greg Gifford, 31, told the PA News agency: “One of the key things I took away from what he said was how the Queen will definitely be looking down on the whole funeral service.
“He said she would be interested in the detail of the soldiers, how the drill is carried out, it’s precision, our dress, things like that.”
Meanwhile, Catherine, who was speaking with Canadian military personnel, said: “Going from that [the jubilee] to this in a few months is very strange.”
King Charles says he has ‘duty to protect diversity’ of BritainKing Charles has said he has a personal “duty to protect the diversity of our country”, in a meeting with 30 faith leaders at Buckingham Palace.
He said that as sovereign he believes his work must include “protecting the space for faith itself” and the valued differences which people live by.
According to PA Media, the monarch said: “I have always thought of Britain as a ‘community of communities’.
“That has led me to understand that the sovereign has an additional duty – less formally recognised but to be no less diligently discharged.
“It is the duty to protect the diversity of our country, including by protecting the space for faith itself and its practice through the religions, cultures, traditions and beliefs to which our hearts and minds direct us as individuals.”
The Prince and Princess of Wales talking to members of the Canadian military. Commonwealth troops have been deployed to the UK to take part in the funeral of the Queen. Photograph: Jonathan Buckmaster/Daily Express/PAThe Princess of Wales talking to members of the Canadian military. Photograph: Jonathan Buckmaster/Daily Express/PAPrince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, viewing tributes outside Windsor Castle on Friday. Photograph: James Manning/PASophie, the Countess of Wessex, meeting the public and receiving flowers outside Windsor Castle. Photograph: James Manning/PAKing Charles to lead siblings in vigil over Queen’s coffinKing Charles and his siblings will watch over the Queen’s coffin, at Westminster Hall this evening.
At 7:30pm on Friday the King, along with Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and Prince Edward will mount a guard at the four corners of the catafalque for 15 minutes.
All will be in military uniform, including Prince Andrew, who as a non-working royal has been granted permission to wear uniform. The King’s son, Prince Harry, will be allowed to do the same on Saturday when the grandchildren carry out the same ceremony.
It is a repeat of the same vigil they carried out at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday.
King Charles III, centre, and other members of the royal family hold a vigil at the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday. Photograph: Jane Barlow/APThe King has been in Wales for part of Friday, but has since returned to Buckingham Palace where he was due to meet faith leaders ahead of the vigil.
Rule allowing MPs and peers to skip queue to see Queen’s coffin criticisedA rule allowing MPs and peers to skip the line to see the Queen lying in state along with four guests each has drawn criticism, as the queue continues to stretch to Southwark Park.
MPs have been offered four extra tickets to visit Westminster Hall, a House of Commons spokesperson confirmed.
It allows their guests to bypass the queue, which was temporarily paused on Friday as wait times reached 14 hours and the back of the queue was some five miles away.
Most parliamentary staff can also avoid the line and bring one guest. But people who work directly for MPs and peers, such as parliamentary researchers, cannot.
They and people employed by contractors in parliament – such as cleaners, security guards and caterers – must queue with the public to attend the lying in state.
It has led to accusations from the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union that they are being treated as “second class citizens”.
The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: “It’s symbolic that hard-working security guards, cleaners and catering staff in parliament are treated as second-class citizens.
“As we usher in a new era, it’s time for them to be treated as equals and at least given a pay rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”
The Labour MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, said she was giving away her guest tickets in a ballot for her constituents to enter.
Wait time to see Queen’s coffin ‘over 24 hours’ says governmentAs my colleague Emily Dugan reported earlier (see 4:46pm), the queue to see the Queen lying in state in Westminster Hall has reopened, although there are differing reports as to how long it ever closed for after the announcement this morning.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has now tweeted that the queue has reopened, but is now saying “expected queuing time is over 24 hours and overnight temperatures will be cold”.
It has warned that the queue may be paused again if it reaches capacity.
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN’S LYING-IN-STATE QUEUE UPDATE, 5:05PM, 16 Sep
Entry to the queue has resumed
Expected queuing time is over 24 hours and overnight temperatures will be cold
The queue may be paused again if it reaches capacity
Tracker: t.co/6BYxq66a8X pic.twitter.com/gzaB4fY0vi
— Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (@DCMS) September 16, 2022 Here’s a map of the route the Queen’s coffin will take on Monday, on her final journey from Westminster Abbey to Windsor Castle, where she will be buried with her husband, Prince Philip, in St George’s Chapel.
A map of the Queen’s journey from Westminster Abbey to Windsor after her funeral on Monday