Parly staffers demand to see the Queen

As Her Majesty the Queen embarks on her final journey south, many in Westminster are preparing to attend the Lying-in-State for the monarch. This will take place in Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster, at the heart of British government. The Queen will lie in state here for four full days before her funeral on Monday 19 September, allowing members of the public to file past and pay their respects.

The last member of the Royal Family to lie in state in the hall was the Queen Mother in 2002, when more than 200,000 people queued to view her coffin, all of whom had to wait hours in line to pay their last respects. Details of the Queen's own Lying-in-State have been planned for years as part of the so-called 'Operation Marquee' but it is safely assured that the number of well-wishers will easily exceed the number that paid their respects to her late mother, 20 years ago.

Not all in parliament though will have to queue to file past Her Majesty's coffin: MPs for instance will priority access and thus avoid the inevitable queues. But what's particularly irked some MPs' staff is a distinction between their rights as pass-holders and those of parliamentary staff employed by the House, who will get priority access. This means a committee clerk will skip the queues but not a parliamentary researcher.

Rules as they currently stand. Some MPs’ staff are asking why it’s fair that House of Commons staff get priority access but not them. pic.twitter.com/HPA5WRFxAn

— James Heale (@JAHeale) September 11, 2022

And now Mr S hears that the Conservative staffers' group chat is ablaze with a plot to similarly skip the queues, with some organising a letter, urging that they be granted similar priority access. A message posted earlier this evening by one staff member employed in the House of Commons declared:

“We are a group of conservative parliamentary staffers writing to ask the eligibility to attend the Lying-in-State for the late Her Majesty the Queen to be extended to all pass holders. The passing of the late Queen has grieved many hearts across the country and the world. And as servants in Her Majesty's Parliament, we were saddened to hear that the opportunity to pay our final respects to our late Sovereign has been limited to only particular groups of pass holders. While we appreciate the immense complexity of the logistics and planning involved in the ensuing days, we would be grateful if the chance to pay to pay final respects to Her Majesty could be extended to pass holders who are in the service of Members of Parliament so the grieving hearts amongst staffers could be consoled.'

While such sentiments are no doubt deeply held, is it right that a staff member should take priority access over a fervent monarchist from afar, purely by virtue of working in the Palace of Westminster? Other staffers seem to agree with the instigator, with one suggesting that 'one of the most persuasive tools will be the fact that our MPs will need to make a choice about releasing us for hours on end.'

Another added: ' if they don't end up letting us attend, then we will need to queue with the general public which has the potential of affecting the operations of MPs' offices because we will all be queuing.' Others piled in with a third suggesting one solution could be 'a slot is put by for staffers late in the evening' and a fourth suggesting it was 'very much worth raising with our bosses' as 'some of them would be prepared to take it up on our behalf.'

Not all the Tories are in agreement though, with one dissident remarking drily to Mr S: 'Not sure a bunch of staffers in their twenties pushing past members of the public is a good look.' Labour and Lib Dem staffers are also understood to be pushing for a solution. One MP pointed out to Mr S the irony of how 'under the proposals the Speaker is putting forward on staffing' MPs' staff could 'soon be employed by parliament' and thus entitled to the same rights as House staff.

Will a solution be found for the monarchists in parliament? Mr S looks forward to finding out.