Brits unite in awe of Queen’s speech: ‘Nobody could have rallied the country, the world the way she did’

The Queen tonight urged the nation, the Commonwealth and the world to unite in the war against coronavirus – and within minutes she appeared to have achieved her aim.

Just moments after the historic address was broadcast on screens across the globe, Brits up and down the country joined together in admiration for the 93-year-old monarch.

The new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was among the public figures to pay tribute to the head of state.

Picking out words from her speech he tweeted: “The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.”

“The Queen speaks for the whole country and our determination to defeat the coronavirus.”

Meanwhile, London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised her focus on frontline healthcare and key workers.

He tweeted: “The moments when the UK has come together to applaud our care & essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit.

“Great to see our hardworking heroes, working flat out on the frontline, at the centre of the #QueensSpeech.”

In the east of the city, staff at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital were pictured standing with rapt attention as they watched the televised speech.

And in Hampstead, councillor Oliver Cooper wrote: "There is, quite simply, nobody that could have given that address, and nobody that could have rallied the country, the Commonwealth, and the world the way the Queen did. GSTQ."

Further north, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the speech had surprised her.

“The Queen’s own quiet resolution on how we will see the other side of this and ‘meet again’ was reassuring, I thought,” she wrote.

“Didn’t know I needed to hear that, but it turns out I did.”

Beyond the political sphere, TV personality Jeremy Clarkson joined in the praise, writing simply: “God I love Mrs Queen."

BBC presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell was enthusiastic, posting: “Hurray for the Queen! I thought that speech was terrific.”

The message travelled overseas too, with Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness writing “Watching the queens speech” alongside a wistful gif of himself.

In her rare televised address, the Queen sounded a positive note after what has been an unsettling period, saying: “We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in