Susanna Reid and Huw Edwards have both appeared to pass comment on the 'queue jump' row which appears to be continuing even after the doors to see the Queen lie in state at Westminster Hall were closed.
Thousands of people have made the pilgrimage to pay their respects to the late monarch during her four days of lying in state. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said after 10.30pm on Sunday that the last people had been admitted to the queue to see the Queen’s coffin prior to the Hall being closed at 6.30am.
In recent days waiting times hit a peak of 14 hours at 10am with famous faces also joining fellow mourners and well-wishers in their quest to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II.
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Good Morning Britain host Susanna was among the first to be spotted after she queued with her 81-year-old mum, Sue, and her friend before David Beckham caused a frenzy when he joined the queue at 2am in a bid to keep a low profile before being spotted during his 12 hours wait.
And in the final night of the Queen's lying in state, singer James Blunt was spotted alongside his wife Sofia Wellesley in the miles-long queue stretching through London. The You're Beautiful singer wore a black suit and tie as he waited to pay his respects, with Sofia, who is the granddaughter of Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington.
Line of Duty star Daniel Mays has shared with fans details of his own 11-hour wait in the queue. The actor, who played Danny Waldron in the hit BBC police procedural, shared photos of himself as he made his slow progress through the queue.
Alongside the snaps, he wrote on Twitter: "11 hours queueing to pay our respects to the Queen for her exceptional 70 years of service yesterday. The warmth, affection, conversations shared, glorious views and sense of community were magical to be part of. Made me proud to be British and proud to be a Londoner."
However, there has been some controversy after Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were accused of 'jumping the queue' when they were spotted in Westminster Hall on Friday. This Morning has since hit back at the claims.
A statement on the programme’s Instagram account said: “Hello everyone, we would like to clarify something. We asked Phillip and Holly to be part of a film for this Tuesday’s programme. They did not jump the queue, have VIP access or file past the Queen lying in state – but instead were there in a professional capacity as part of the world’s media to report on the event."
On Monday (September 19) during a historic episode of GMB hours before the Queen's state funeral, Susanna spoke to her co-host Ben Shephard about her experience queuing on the streets of London. She said: "It is an enormous privilege to have been able to do that, to spend time paying our last respects, but also those hours in the queue as well, coming to an end now.
"You can see the emotion etched on people's faces, I think almost the fact they are the last in the queue," before Ben added: "It's going to resonate further."
He added: "It's huge commitment, when we were talking and you were in the queue I think for seven hours and 20 minutes in total with your mum and a friend. So very emotional that you could be together and we had that over and over again from people that met like-minded people that just wanted to feel connected in the queue.
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"When you do anything like that and endeavour because it really is an endeavour to stay that long for this moment, you can understand why, for some, they are overwhelmed with emotion."
Susanna went on to say: "Whether you are religious or not, a royalist or not, it feels like a sort of pilgrimage, and a historic moment, a historic opportunity." She also added: ""When I was in the queue, young children, patiently and uncomplainingly stood for hours. I was so proud of my mum at 81 queuing with me."
Over on the BBC, Huw Edwards, who delivered the news about the Queen’s death on television on September 8, also appeared to make a subtle comment about his fellow TV stars as he praised former footballer David Beckham, who had been waiting for hours in the queue alongside members of the public.
Commenting on the celebrity turnout in the queue, Huw said: "Well there have been quite a few familiar faces in the queue for that lying in state at Westminster Hall. We did of course see a certain David Beckham there on Friday, he was widely praised for having queued hours and hours, not jumping the queue because he’s a superstar VIP. No, he was in the queue for many hours and good for him."
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