3 Bizarre Moments From Tense State Opening Of Parliament

The State Opening of Parliament is always a momentous occasion where the government sets out its plans for the next parliamentary session via King Charles.

The monarch makes a grand entrance to the Palace of Westminster, dressed in all his finery, and reads out the legislation the government plans to focus on over the next year or so.

But there’s a shadow hanging over the whole of Westminster right now after more than 80 Labour MPs called for the prime minister to resign and four of his ministers quit.

It comes after the party took a drubbing at the elections in England, Scotland and Wales last week.

But Keir Starmer has insisted he is staying in post, even after four of his own ministers and four ministerial aides quit and urged him to set out a timetable for his own departure.

Now all eyes are on his rival in cabinet, health secretary Wes Streeting, who has long-held ambitions to be prime minister.

His allies even briefed the media that he was considering resigning from government on Thursday to launch his own leadership bid moments before the King began speaking in the House of Lords.

So the combination of pomp and ceremony and the backdrop of a possible Westminster coup led to some very bizarre moments across the day,

The health secretary went to 10 Downing Street for a tense coffee with the prime minister just hours before the King was due to arrive in parliament.

He was expected to ask Starmer about his plan to get the government back on track – though speculation mounted over whether Streeting’s own leadership bid might come up.

The exact contents of that meeting have been kept under wraps so far – but Streeting stalked out of Downing Street after less than 20 minutes.

He pointedly ignored the press’s attempts to get his attention and walked very quickly away from Number 10.

Torcuil Crichton, the Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, got a few laughs when he shouted “not now, Andy” as Black Rod knocked on the front door on the Commons.

The Black Rod is a parliamentary official who has the door of the Commons shut in their face and has to knock three times before they are allowed in.

It’s a symbolic moment dating back to the Civil War.

But Crichton’s humour overshadowed it by joking about Andy Burnham, another potential rival for Keir Starmer.

He is not an MP but the mayor of Greater Manchester, and desperate to get a seat in the Commons so he can challenge the PM – hence he would be knocking at the door.

As speculation about the health secretary quitting grew, Streeting was mysteriously absent from the front bench.

He chose not to sit on the front bench but lurked by the Speaker’s chair, away from his cabinet colleagues.

Naturally, that only fuelled theories that he is close to leaving government.

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