Read: Meetings with Queen Elizabeth II were always a great occasion

I’m not the sort of person to get tongue-tied or star-struck when I meet a celebrity, and during my time in politics I’ve had the chance to meet quite a few. But just over a decade ago, I certainly was on one occasion. It was when I first met the Queen.

On becoming Secretary of State for Transport in 2011 and entering Cabinet, it is protocol to be made a Privy Counsellor. Aside from being a huge honour, it was also the first time I’d ever had the chance to meet the Queen face to face.

I’d come close decades before in Plymouth on a family holiday. The Queen was visiting the city so we headed over to be in the crowds to greet her. Somehow we ended up near the front, able to see the royal party as it came our way. I was only seven years old and it felt incredibly exciting to see this woman who was our Head of State coming along the street.

Rather riskily, my dad gave me the family camera and hoisted me onto his shoulders. He told me which button to press and said to get a photo of the Queen. When I asked how I’d know which one was her, he said it would be the woman with the matching dress and hat. Needless to say, when it was finally developed, the blurry photo of Her Majesty’s lady-in-waiting wasn’t the best one I’d ever take. It still made our family album though.

When I finally got to meet Her Majesty in person many years later, I was so nervous that combining speaking what I’d been told to say by a royal aide -  “Good afternoon, Ma’am” - with a curtsy was too much and I garbled my words. It didn’t matter. She steered me through a Privy Counsellor ceremony that she must have done hundreds of times before. From this first experience, the Queen’s calmness and decades of experience shone through, as did her unstinting dedication to her duty in serving our country. It was humbling to spend time with her.

Over the years I was to see her regularly at Privy Council meetings and it was always a wonderful experience to be with someone who was such a unique, incredible icon for our country. Someone who, perhaps more than anyone else, has shaped our sense of ourselves as a modern nation.

As International Development Secretary, I found she was hugely knowledgeable on foreign affairs in a way that only her unparalleled experience and travels could bring. Her time spent at the head of the Commonwealth, alongside listening to and talking with the key protagonists leading the world over the decades, meant it was impossible not to be impressed by her depth of understanding of world events.

One day I was invited for lunch at Windsor Castle and being careful not to be late, I ended up arriving 10 minutes earlier than my other Cabinet colleagues. Expecting to wait, I was instead ushered in to see the Queen immediately. I remember us walking down a long, wide corridor towards where lunch would be, with her corgis scampering ahead. One of them flung itself over on its back, demanding to have its tummy tickled and I duly obliged as we chatted about how important pets are in so many of our lives. It was a privilege and an unforgettable experience to have that precious 10 minutes with the Queen. She was not only wise, but funny and warm. She always had a way of putting you at ease.

It’s hard to write anything that hasn’t already been written or said about the Queen in recent days. She was part of an amazing generation that was shaped by its early experience of this country at war and never lost that sense of the importance of service. Whilst her death has hit all of us hard, my abiding emotion has been of gratitude for a life of service, reflecting on how fortunate Britain was to have had her as our monarch for so long. The similar global reaction to the Queen’s death shows us hers was also a life that brought people together across the world in a way that is impossible for politics to do.

We have rightly spent time looking back over the Queen’s life of service to our nation. In the coming days and weeks we will look forward again as we begin the initial weeks of the reign of King Charles III. He is someone I have also had the privilege of meeting and shares the same values of service and duty as his mother. 

It is, of course, a challenging time for Britain, with a cost of living crisis that affects all of us one way or another. And politics will resume in earnest, as it must, once MPs are back in Parliament. But the past 10 days have underlined the value we place on our constitutional monarchy and its importance to our country. In uncertain times it provides a stability and continuity that is priceless. 

Featured on the Yorkshire Post Saturday 17th September 2022.