Boos appeared to greet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Prince Harry outside St Paul’s Cathedral, London, where dignitaries were attending a ceremony of thanksgiving for the service of Queen Elizabeth II on Friday.
Senior Royals — although not the Queen herself — military leaders, and political figures among other dignitaries from civil life and around the Commonwealth gathered in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral today to give thanks to God for the long life, reign, and service of Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee.
Yet, the otherwise apolitical and celebratory timbre of the day was intruded upon briefly when crowds reacted to Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving with his wife Carrie Johnson.
Boos and jeers started and gradually swelled after the Prime Minister emerged from his car and entered the historic church. A reporter for the British state broadcaster the BBC giving a live rundown of events remarked: “you can hear it, there is really quite a lot of booing, actually. A substantial amount… that’s quite a moment”.
Neither Boris nor Carrie appeared to react to the chorus.
A general view of the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral on June 03, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood -WPA Pool/Getty Images)
A guard of honor forms up outside St Paul’s Cathedra (Photo by Toby Melville – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Separately, the Queen’s grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle also appear to have been booed outside the cathedral as they left the service. Broadcasters and news organisations including Fox News, The Express, and The Mail reported on the booing that could be heard from the crowd as the couple, who controversially withdrew from Royal life and moved to the Americas after a number of high-profile spats with family members and the UK press, stepped out of the cathedral portico to their waiting car.
Harry and Meghan’s arrival at the cathedral was their first public appearance at a Royal family official event in over two years.
Emotions among those in the crowd may have been mixed, however. The BBC’s own feed of proceedings with ambient microphone sounds appears to catch the sound of both cheering and booing when the Prime Minister and his wife arrived. Likewise, when Prince Harry and Meghan arrived at the Cathedral, cheers can too be heard.
Inside the Cathedral, the service of thanksgiving went ahead but without the Queen herself who briefly appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Thursday to review her troops as they passed and also to greet the public who turned out to cheer her. That the Queen would be missing Friday’s service was announced Thursday night, reportedly a decision reached with “great reluctance” because of the “discomfort” she is in.
The 96-year-old monarch, while not withdrawing from public life, has been less physically able in her public engagements and now walks with a stick, which she appeared with on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday. In February, while meeting military officers the Queen beckoned her guests to come to her as she was unable to approach them. While standing with her stick, she said then: “Well, as you can see I can’t move”.
St Paul’s Cathedral, easily one of the most readily recognisable cathedrals in the world, was built by Sir Christopher Wren from 1669 after the earlier, magnificent Gothic cathedral which was one of the wonders of medieval Europe burnt in the Great Fire of London of 1666.