London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Boris Johnson leads former prime ministers in heartfelt tribute to ‘Elizabeth the Great’

Boris Johnson leads former prime ministers in heartfelt tribute to ‘Elizabeth the Great’

Johnson laments that a ‘bright and shining light’ has ‘finally gone out,’ as every surviving British prime minister pays tribute to Elizabeth II.
Boris Johnson paid a heartfelt tribute to “Elizabeth the Great,” as a host of former prime ministers mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Johnson — who left office this week — said in a statement that it was the “saddest day” for the U.K. because the queen’s “bright and shining light” had “finally gone out.”

Queen Elizabeth II died in her holiday home in Balmoral, Scotland on Thursday at the age of 96 and after more than 70 years on the throne. She is succeeded by her eldest son Charles, who now becomes King Charles III.

Johnson saw the queen just two days before, when he resigned as prime minister and was replaced by Liz Truss, who gave her own tribute to the queen on the rain-soaked steps of Downing Street Thursday night.

He said that in the hearts of all Britons “there is an ache at the passing of our queen, a deep and personal sense of loss — far more intense, perhaps, than we expected.”

“She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on,” Johnson said.

And he added: “As is so natural with human beings, it is only when we face the reality of our loss that we truly understand what has gone. It is only really now that we grasp how much she meant for us, how much she did for us, how much she loved us.”

The queen, Johnson said, “selflessly and calmly” embodied the “continuity and unity of our country.”

“This is our country’s saddest day because she had a unique and simple power to make us happy,” he said. “That is why we loved her. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history.”

Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May said the queen had devoted herself “unreservedly to a life of service,” and was “respected and admired not only by her own people but far beyond our family of nations.”

The former Conservative leader added: “As our longest reigning monarch, Her Majesty witnessed tremendous change, moving adroitly with the times but always providing stability and reassurance. She was our constant throughout this great Elizabethan era.”

Fellow Tory David Cameron, in office between 2010 and 2016, said: “No matter how prepared one could be for this day, there are no words that can adequately express the sense of loss our nation will feel.” The queen, he said, had “been the constant in all our lives over the past 70 years. As our longest-serving monarch. her remarkable reign has lasted, for most people, our entire lives — we know nothing else.”

John Major, Conservative prime minister for much of the 1990s, told BBC News: “It’s very hard to take it in that that radiant smile, which lights up a room and lights up a country, is just not going to be … there anymore.” There would, he predicted, be “many tears shed tonight and over the next few days for her majesty the queen.”

Tributes came in too from the surviving Labour prime ministers who served the queen during her seven-decade reign.

Gordon Brown, the U.K.’s leader from 2007 to 2010, said that the “United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and the entire world are joined together in mourning this evening.” Elizabeth II, he said, had “served this country to the last.”

Tony Blair, who served for 13 years as British prime minister, said: “We have lost not just our monarch but the matriarch of our nation, the figure who more than any other brought our country together, kept us in touch with our better nature, personified everything which makes us proud to be British. “
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×