Liz Truss pays emotional tribute to Queen Elizabeth II

Mary Elizabeth Truss, the British Prime Minister, on Thursday paid an emotional tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96, having served as the longest and oldest monarch in the British empire, having served for more than seventy years.

She described her death as a colossal loss to the nation, attributing her reign to the “very spirit of Great Britain”.

Her speech

We’re all devastated by the news that we have just heard from Balmoral. The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world. Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built.

Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her. She ascended to the throne just after the Second World War.

She championed the development of the Commonwealth from a small group of seven countries to a family of 56 nations, spanning every continent of the world.

We are now a modern, thriving, dynamic nation. Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and strength that we needed.

She was the very spirit of Great Britain, and that spirit will endure. She has been our longest-ever reigning monarch. It is an extraordinary achievement to have been presided over with such dignity and grace for seventy years. Her life of service stretched beyond most of our living memories. In return, she was admired by most people in the United Kingdom and all around the world. She has been a personal inspiration to me and to many Britons. Her devotion to duty has been an example to us all. Earlier this week, at 96, she remained determined to carry out her duties as she appointed me as her 15th Prime Minister. Throughout her life, she has visited more than a hundred countries, and she has touched the lives of millions around the world.

In the difficult days ahead, we will come together with our friends in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and the world to celebrate her extraordinary life of service.

It is a great day of great loss that Queen Elizabeth II leaves a great legacy.

Today, the crown passes, as it has done for more than a thousand years, to our new monarch, our new head of state, his majesty, King Charles III.

With the Kings’ family, we mourn the loss of their mother, and as we mourn, we must come together as a people to support him, to help him bear the awesome responsibility that he now carries for us all. We offer him our loyalty and devotion just as his mother devoted so much to so many for so long.

And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country exactly as her majesty would have wished by saying the words: “God save the King”.