Boris Johnson

Queen Elizabeth was "as radiant, knowledgeable and fascinated by politics" when she met Boris Johnson during his final meeting with the monarch on Tuesday, ...

"There was often that twinkle in the eye, and that magnificent smile that would break out and that calmed so many people's nerves and made so many people feel at ease," she said about the Queen, who died on Thursday. "The Queen had an extraordinary ability to put you at your ease. "She was a very acute judge of people and was able often to give those little if you like, pen portraits of people that she knew, that she'd met.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that the country felt a deep and personal sense of loss at the passing of Queen Elizabeth, ...

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Johnson laments that a 'bright and shining light' has 'finally gone out,' as every surviving British prime minister pays tribute to Elizabeth II.

John Major, Conservative prime minister for much of the 1990s, told BBC News: “It’s very hard to take it in that that radiant smile, which lights up a room and lights up a country, is just not going to be … Fellow Tory David Cameron, in office between 2010 and 2016, said: “No matter how prepared one could be for this day, there are no words that can adequately express the sense of loss our nation will feel.” The queen, he said, had “been the constant in all our lives over the past 70 years. And he added: “As is so natural with human beings, it is only when we face the reality of our loss that we truly understand what has gone. Johnson — who left office this week — said in a statement that it was the “saddest day” for the U.K. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history.” “That is why we loved her.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson honored Queen Elizabeth II during a speech in the House of Commons in London.

In a House of Commons Chamber filled with MPs clothed in black, former PM described his final meeting with Her Majesty.

And as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser. That is why we mourn her so deeply, and it is in the depths of our grief that we understand why we loved her so much. Perhaps it is partly that she has always been there a changeless human reference point in British life. And I’m afraid I simply choked up. Think what we asked of her in that moment, not just to be the living embodiment – in her DNA – of the history and continuity and unity of this country, but to be the figurehead of our entire system, the keystone in the vast arch of the British state. And I can tell you that in that audience, she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics and as ever I can remember.