Sir John Major’s Interview on BBC News Following the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II – 8 September 2022
Sir John Major’s interview with BBC News on 8 September 2022.
INTERVIEWER
We’re now joined by the former Conservative Prime Minister, Sir John Major. It’s very good of you to join us here on BBC News at this moment in time. Fears of course had been mounting throughout the day on the news from the Queen’s medical team at Balmoral, what are your thoughts now on the passing of Her Majesty?
SIR JOHN MAJOR
Well, it is heartbreaking news. It’s news that one day we knew we would have, but we always hoped it would be delayed and would be some way away. It’s very hard to take it in, that radiant smile which lights up a room and lights up a country is just not going to be there for us anymore, very hard to imagine. Most of the people in this country can remember nothing other than the Queen as Monarch. Many of those who are elderly remember, faintly, the former King, but this is an enormous change for this country. It’s a very big moment in history, a key pivotal moment and I think there will be many tears shed tonight and over the next few days for Her Majesty the Queen.
INTERVIEWER
I wondered, Sir John, given your interactions with the Queen, obviously as Prime Minister, what your personal recollections are of meeting her?
SIR JOHN MAJOR
There are so many recollections and in many ways so different from what people might imagine the private meetings that the Prime Minister has with a Queen, which perhaps scheduled for 45 minutes in my experience never lasted remotely under an hour and often some way beyond it. They weren’t entirely serious matters just discussing the matters of the nation, there was a great deal of amusement in them, there was a great deal of humour and then there was a bit of gossip in there.
Apart from that, the serious matters that were discussed, I think people would have been extraordinarily surprised if they realised the depth of information the Queen had about the lives of people in every conceivable part of the United Kingdom. She was always extraordinarily well briefed, and on foreign affairs of course, she would often say if there was a difficulty of a foreign leader, ‘well, I met him many years ago’ or even ‘I knew his father’, there was always a wise word to be had. Those meetings with the Queen are one of the better parts of a Prime Minister’s week.
INTERVIEWER
I mean that stability, that continuity that she brought, not just to the monarchy I suppose, but to all of our lives on being on the throne over such a long period. What are your thoughts on that now that she’s passed?
SIR JOHN MAJOR
The continuity was very important, but I think there were other things as well, the example, the duty, the selflessness, the way in which other people were put first, the way in which she handled crises with great stoicism when they occurred, as they occurred a number of times during her reign. They were all examples to people about how to behave in their own lives and examples for our country. What I found going around the world is that the Queen was the face of the United Kingdom. When people around the world spoke of the Queen they actually meant our queen. That was the status she had in every part of the world, it was truly remarkable.
INTERVIEWER
Sir John, you talked about the stoicism she showed in times of crisis. We think back of course to 1992 and her Annus horribilis speech, the fire at Windsor Castle as well. Her fortitude in dealing with those issues and those problems was something that the British people came to admire greatly in her, along with that sense of duty.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
I think they were right to admire it. I sat one along from her when she made the Annus horribilis speech in 1992. A great deal had gone wrong and there was, as you say, that dreadful fire in Windsor Castle which many people didn’t receive with the sympathy perhaps they should have done. But the Queen understood that, she put her head down and she quietly, silently, uncomplainingly got on with her job. There are very few people who would have handled it with the aplomb that she did. I think that was in part because of her experience and in part because of her natural nature. She knew what one had to do to be a Monarch, she knew when to keep out of controversy, she knew when to advise in private, she was almost faultless in the way in which she conducted the monarchy. She leaves behind the monarchy in very good shape and a son who’s been brought up to follow in precisely the same footsteps, King Charles III.
INTERVIEWER
I wondered too Sir John about the affection with which she was held right around the world, particularly within the Commonwealth. You’ve travelled and you’ve seen the great affection that she had and there will be millions across the globe now who will be particularly sad today?
SIR JOHN MAJOR
I have seen that affection in close quarters. Twelve years ago I was invited by the Queen to set up and chair the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee trust, a charity to commemorate her 60 years on the throne. We raised money from across the Commonwealth and I asked the Queen what she wished us to do with the money that we had raised in her name. She gave us two tasks, the first was to cure avoidable blindness across the whole of the Commonwealth, and the second was to seek out young Commonwealth leaders in every nation of the Commonwealth, 54 countries at the time, and help prepare them for leadership roles in later life. It was entirely a selfless request on her behalf, and entirely typical of her.
INTERVIEWER
Remarkable. Sir John Major, thank you very much indeed for giving us your reflections on Queen Elizabeth II who passed away today. Thank you so much.