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A FAST-TRACK system is allowing MPs and peers to jump the queues of people waiting to see the Queen’s coffin laying in state, it emerged today.
Most parliamentary staff can avoid the lengthy wait to get into central London’s Westminster Hall, estimated to have reached at least 14 hours today, but people working for MPs must stand in line.
The estate’s cleaners, caterers and security staff, some of whom are outsourced, are also excluded, leading the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) to warn that they are being treated like “second-class citizens.”
Anger was further heightened by the revelation that the scheme allows MPs and peers to bring four guests each with them.
One MP staff member told the BBC: "We've seen in the parliamentary response to a succession of scandals involving the bullying and sexual harassment of MPs’ staff that we are treated as an afterthought, and this is yet another example.''
According to an internal House of Commons memo, leaked to The Spectator magazine, those working for members have been told that “it is not possible to open up access further without the risk of impacting access for the public.”
Tory Prime Minister Liz Truss and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer are among the MPs who have attended the lying-in-state, which will continue until 6:30am on Monday — the day of the funeral.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, which represents civil and public servants as well as private-sector workers on government contracts, said: "It’s symbolic that hard-working security guards, cleaners and catering staff in Parliament are treated as second-class citizens.
“As we usher in a new era, it’s time for them to be treated as equals and at least given a pay rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”
The tradition of lying in state for monarchs dates back to the 17th century, but the first figure to receive the honour at Westminster Hall — built in 1097 — was Liberal prime minister William Gladstone, who died in 1898.
The queue to see the coffin of Edward VII in 1910 is said to have been a show of egalitarianism, with the wealthy forced to wait with those who happened to be less well-off.
Establishment grandee Winston Churchill reportedly attempted to jump the queue with his family — but he was turned away.
