British Prime Minister Liz Truss led the tributes to Queen Elizabeth II on Friday as the UK — and the world — reacted to her dying on the age of 96.
Truss, who took workplace Tuesday after succeeding Boris Johnson, remembered the queen as “the rock on which our nation was constructed.”
In a speech outdoors No. 10 Downing St., she mentioned that everybody was “devastated” after a “enormous shock to the nation and the world.”
“Britain is the good nation it’s at this time due to her,” she added. “Her devotion to obligation is an instance to us all.”
She mentioned Britain would supply King Charles III “our loyalty and devotion, simply as his mom devoted a lot to us for therefore lengthy.”
Her predecessor known as the queen’s passing “our nation’s saddest day.”
“Within the hearts of each one in every of us there’s an ache on the passing of our Queen, a deep and private sense of loss — much more intense, maybe, than we anticipated,” Johnson mentioned in a statement. “She appeared so timeless and so great that I’m afraid we had come to consider, like youngsters, that she would simply go on and on,” he added.
Keir Starmer, the chief of the opposition Labour Get together, additionally paid his respects. In a statement, he mentioned the U.Ok. was mourning “the passing of a outstanding sovereign.” As Britain modified quickly, he mentioned, the queen’s “dedication grew to become the nonetheless level of our turning world.”
England’s prime non secular authority, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, mentioned his prayers had been “with the king and the royal household,” whereas Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called Elizabeth’s dying “a profoundly unhappy second.”
President Joe Biden was fast to pay tribute to the monarch, saying in a press release that she was “a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and fidelity who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the UK and the US.”
His predecessor, Donald Trump, additionally paid his respects, saying in a press release that her “outstanding reign left an incredible legacy of peace and prosperity for Nice Britain.”
“Melania and I’ll all the time cherish our time along with the Queen, and always remember Her Majesty’s beneficiant friendship, nice knowledge, and great humorousness,” he added.
Former President Barack Obama mentioned the connection he and his spouse, Michelle, shaped with the queen “meant a terrific deal to us.”
“Again and again, we had been struck by her heat, the way in which she put individuals comfy, and the way she introduced her appreciable humor and appeal to moments of nice pomp and circumstance,” he mentioned in a press release.
In Canada, a member nation of the Commonwealth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned in a press release that “it was with the heaviest of hearts that we realized of the passing of Canada’s longest-reigning Sovereign.”
“She was a continuing presence in our lives — and her service to Canadians will ceaselessly stay an necessary a part of our nation’s historical past,” he added.
NATO Secretary Basic Jens Stoltenberg mentioned he was “deeply saddened,” by the queen’s passing, tweeting that she “exemplified selfless management and public service.”
European leaders together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute, tweeting that her dying was an “irreparable loss.”
French President Emmanuel Macron provided his condolences. Alongside a portrait of Elizabeth, he tweeted that she was “a pal of France,” whereas German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took to social media to say that her “dedication to German-British reconciliation after the horrors of World Conflict II will stay unforgotten.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared fond reminiscences of the monarch, tweeting that he would “always remember her heat and kindness.”
“Throughout one of many conferences she confirmed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding ceremony,” he wrote, referring to the Indian independence chief. “I’ll all the time cherish that gesture.”
Alexander Smith contributed.
