Crowds face 30-hour queues stretching back five miles to see the Queen's coffin

12 September 2022, 11:46

Mourners hoping to see the Queen's coffin in Parliament this week will face queues of up to 30 hours, a Cabinet minister has warned.

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan warned of "unprecedented demand" to see Her Majesty's coffin before her state funeral at Westminster Abbey next week.

Around 750,000 people are expected to line up to pay their respects to Her late Majesty - and could face queues longer than a day stretching back five miles.

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan wrote to fellow MPs via WhatsApp this morning: "Queues could be up to 30 hours as we are obviously expecting and planning for unprecedented demand", The Times reported.

Officials expect as many as one million people to swell in the capital, rivalling the huge number who gathered in London to pay tribute to Princess Diana after her death in August 1997.

Queen Elizabeth II will lie in state at Westminster Hall from Wednesday afternoon until her state funeral on Monday morning.

The government is also said to be braced for London to be “full” for the very first time.

Around 1,500 soldiers will help stewards look after the lines, with 10,000 cops deployed throughout the capital.

Photos taken this morning showed the queue line had already been set up at 7am - more than 48 hours before the Queen's arrival in the city.

King Charles III today addressed MPs and members of the House of Lords in Parliament, expressing his gratitude as he was presented with a book of condolences by parliamentarians.

He described Parliament as "the living and breathing instrument of democracy”, adding : “I cannot help but feel the weight of history that surrounds us."

The newly installed King was pictured fighting back tears as the crowd at Westminster Hall sang "God Save the King".

The Queen Mother was the last person to lie in state in the UK, following her death in 2002.

More than 200,000 people lined up to visit her at Westminster Hall.

Visitors have been told to dress appropriately and remain quiet while paying their respects.

King Charles also quoted Shakespeare in a tribute to his 'beloved mother' as he addressed Parliament for the first time since becoming monarch.

Charles said the late Queen had “set an example of selfless duty which, with God's help and your counsels, I am resolved faithfully to follow.”

“I am deeply grateful for addresses of condolence, which so touchingly encompass what late sovereign beloved mother meant to us all,” he added.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told Westminster Hall that in his first address King Charles "pledged to uphold constitutional principles at the heart of our nation".

Sir Lindsay said: "In your first address to the nation you recognised your life would change as a result of the new responsibilities.

"You pledged yourself to uphold constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.

"These are weighty responsibilities, as the early Queen Elizabeth said in her final speech to parliamentarians 'to be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.'"

Following the King's address, the audience stood and the national anthem was then sung in Westminster Hall.

The King will fly to Edinburgh later today where the Queen’s coffin rests at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Royal family members will walk behind the coffin as it goes to St Giles’s Cathedral for public view after a service this afternoon.

King Charles III arrives at Parliament for accession event