Priti Patel is marshal helping control queue to see the Queen

Ex-home secretary Priti Patel and Tory chairman spotted acting as a volunteer MARSHALS controlling the snaking queue of mourners paying respects to Queen at the weekend

• Photos posted on social media showed Mrs Patel in a blue high-vis jacket 
• Volunteered with Tory Andrew Stephenson on last day of lying in state
• Many stopped to take photos with the politician as they queued along Thames 
• The Queen’s funeral: All the latest Royal Family news and coverage

Former home secretary Priti Patel was spotted filling in as a volunteer marshal for those queuing to pay their respects to the Queen.

Several photos posted on social media showed Mrs Patel in a blue high-vis jacket alongside fellow Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson on the final day of the monarch’s lying in state.

Many stopped to take photos with the politician as they queued along the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge in central London on Sunday afternoon.

Among them was consultant Dan Barker, who was walking beside the queue with his wife when he spotted the pair near the Oxo Tower.

Several photos posted on social media showed Mrs Patel in a blue high-vis jacket alongside fellow Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson on the final day of the monarch’s lying in state.

Ms Patel has already paid her own respects to the monarch in Westminster Hall last week

Among those who saw them was consultant Dan Barker, who was walking beside the queue with his wife when he spotted the pair near the Oxo Tower

‘I realised I recognised a couple of the marshals up ahead – one was Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson; the other was Priti Patel, both dressed in the same blue tunics worn by the many marshals along the route.

‘At that point nobody else seemed to have recognised them,’ he added.

Queues to see the Queen’s coffin at the Palace of Westminster reached up to 24 hours at some points, with the line stretching five miles to Southwark Park.

It was closed to the public on Monday morning ahead of her state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Mrs Patel was home secretary from July 2019 until earlier this month, when she was replaced by Suella Braverman as part of PM Liz Truss’ first cabinet.

The Queen today left London for the final time today. Her Majesty will be laid to rest in Windsor next to her beloved husband Prince Philip and her parents after being driven 20 miles from Hyde Park Corner later this afternoon on a day of pomp and poignant symbolism to mark the passing of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

Grief had been etched on the faces of King Charles, his siblings and children as well as the huge crowds who swamped The Mall, Whitehall and Parliament Square to bade farewell to the beloved monarch.

And applause and a spontaneous three cheers broke out as the Queen’s coffin passed the Albert Memorial in Kensington in its way to Windsor. As the hearse drove off flowers were thrown into the road by members of the public watching from behind a fence. Others waved Union flags as the fleet of vehicles drove past.

Following the departure of the coffin and the royal family, the bells at Westminster Abbey began to ring out. The muffled peal will continue throughout the afternoon, which only occurs after the funeral of a sovereign.

The poignant scenes followed an extraordinary and emotional state funeral attended by 2,000 VIPs, royals, prime ministers and several hundred ordinary Britons chosen by the Queen. Outside on the streets and estimated 2million people were there to mourn her passing 11 days ago.

After the service, where King Charles appeared to be tearful, her coffin slowly passed through the crowded but silent streets until the cheers began.

Members of the Royal Family, including the King, marched poignantly behind, while others including the Princess of Wales and her children George and Charlotte and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, looked on at the crowds as they passed them in vehicles.

The crowds would later break into applause and cheers after the Queen’s coffin passed them and also when Her Majesty circled round the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace as Big Ben chimed 96 times – one for each year of her life – a mile away.

Once the coffin reached the Queen’s London home, members of staff at the palace bowed and curtsied both at the coffin and members of the royal family as they made their way past. She was then carried to Wellington Arch, where her hearse was waiting to take her to Windsor and reunite her with her husband to rest in eternal peace.

Members of the Royal Family watched on as the bearer party lifted the coffin from the State Gun Carriage and loaded it into the back of the vehicle. Much of the procession party lined up in formation on the green next to the monument and stood in silence during the moving of the coffin. The national anthem then played as the hearse moved away.

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