Atheist Keir Starmer avoids reference to God in pledge of loyalty to King Charles III – The Telegraph

A number of MPs told stories about how the Queen had helped to ease peoples nerves at official ceremonies.

Greg Clark, the Conservative former levelling up secretary,said that some ministers had found the experience of being sworn in as Privy Counsellors "so overwhelming that I understand that men have suddenly been moved to curtsy in front of Her Majesty".

Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary,recalled that during the "ancient and complex" process, he did not understand the meaning of the phrase "brush her hand" during the oath-taking.

Fifth in the line to become a Privy Counsellor, he was unable to watch what other ministers were doing ahead of him. "She stretched out her bare ungloved right hand and to my surprise moved it towards my face, it moved towards my lips. I pursed my lips. It stuck!"

With a smack of his lips, Mr Shapps added: "In what felt like an age, she was trying to pull it away and then suddenly ... her hand pulled away."

Mr Shapps said he wanted the ground to "swallow me whole" but added: "She looked me right in the eyes with those wonderful sparkling eyes, and as though to acknowledge what had happened and also to forgive me in one turn, she said 'Yes,'

"We never spoke of it again. God Save the King."

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, described the late monarch as our forever Queen.

She related how the Queen invited departing Cabinet ministers and party leaders to tea, with Ms Cooper receiving the invite after Labour lost the 2010 general election.

She didnt invite us when we were on the way up, she didnt invite us when we were playing a constitutional role, she only invited us when it was all over and the cameras had gone home, said Ms Cooper.

Most of us dont like to talk about our downfall, and so most people never knew she even held those teas It showed how privately even more than publicly she believed in selfless duty and valuing public service to our country.

Afterwards, Ms Truss took her Cabinet ministers to Buckingham Palace, where they were received by the King for the first time.

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Atheist Keir Starmer avoids reference to God in pledge of loyalty to King Charles III - The Telegraph