Newcastle MP pays brilliant tribute to Queen Elizabeth with heartfelt Newcastle United joke

A Newcastle MP paid a brilliant tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in Parliament on Friday with a speech that included a tongue-in-cheek joke about Newcastle United.

MP for Newcastle Central Chi Onwurah explained her emotions upon finding out that the monarch has passed away at her Balmoral residence and what she admired about the Queen.

Ms Onwurah went on to explain the Royal Family's links to Newcastle and recalled a memory that will be fond with Magpies' fans. That led to a joke which got those present in Parliament laughing.

Here is the full speech from the Newcastle MP.

"The people of Newcastle have always held a strong and proud sense of our own identity as Geordies, as working people, as citizens of the United Kingdom and, for seven decades, as subjects of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

"Her death leaves us bereft in ways we cannot fully comprehend. Queen Elizabeth cared about the things that we Geordies care about. She was, like so many Geordies, a veteran of our armed forces, devoted to our service men and women. I am proud that the Queen's Own Yeomanry is headquartered in my constituency. The Queen loved her sport, as we do, and we remember with great affection when she presented Newcastle United with our last FA Cup trophy in 1955. We look forward to King Charles II making a similar presentation in the near future!

"I never met her late Majesty, like the majority of my constituents, but her presence graced our city. She first came to Newcastle Central in 1954; a day she said 'she would never forget’. I remember when she opened Eldon Square in 1977 and out Metro in 1981 and I regularly look upon the plaque commemorating her opening of our beautiful City Library.

"As head of state, Queen Elizabeth was a profoundly important global figure. She could have tried to retain the imperial aura of the monarchy's past, or faded into the background as a distant symbol. Instead, she found a way to be a constant stability for our Parliamentary democracy, a forceful presence reassuring us that our unwritten Constitution had a human embodiment beyond those of us who sit for a time here in Westminster and that, should it come to it, our ancient liberties and our modern rights had a formidable guardian.

"For me personally, I can say that when I heard the news, I was disorientated in awe of her service and unable to understand my country without her. But I also thought of when as a young woman in the 1980s I was devoted to the cause of ending apartheid in South Africa, at a time when many British institutions were entangled with that evil in a way that made me doubt whether I belonged in the country of my birth. The Queen stood in solidarity with the Commonwealth in the face of apartheid in South Africa. Her love for the Commonwealth as a community of equals, her fundamental understanding that racism and fascism are evil ensures esteem from Newcastle Central to Newcastle Kwazulu, across our Commonwealth.

"But I end where I started in Newcastle. Her Platinum jubilee was celebrated with enthusiasm in our leafy avenues and less cared-for council estates. I remember particularly a tea party in Holly Court Retirement Home Blakelaw. The love, respect, enthusiasm, and laughter we shared that afternoon in the Queen's honour was so sincere, so genuine and made all the more poignant because the organiser Mrs T had just received a British Empire Medal for services to the community and was so, so proud.

“We miss the Queen, we are so grateful to her and we say God Save the King."