Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments of the day:
- Senior royals, parliamentarians and diplomats joined 400 members of the public honoured for key roles they have played in their communities in the 2,000-strong congregation at St Paul’s to celebrate the 70-year reign of the Queen. The service was designed to be the spiritual heart of the platinum jubilee weekend.
- The Prince of Wales filled in for the Queen at the thanksgiving service today. Buckingham Palace said the monarch, 96, was missing the service “with great reluctance” having experienced episodic mobility problems throughout the day on Thursday at the start of her jubilee celebrations.
- The Archbishop of York has thanked the Queen for “staying the course”. Stephen Cottrell said he assumed she was watching the service on television. He said: “Your Majesty, we are sorry that you’re not here with us this morning, but we are so glad that you are still in the saddle. And we are glad that there is still more to come.”
- Some members of the crowd loudly booed as the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his wife, Carrie, got out of their car and walked up the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. Also present were a number of former prime ministers including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May. Johnson read from the New Testament.
- A huge cheer went up when Prince Harry and Meghan arrived. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex sat in the second row of the congregation, with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and their husbands, and Lady Sarah Chatto, the daughter of Princess Margaret, and her family.
- The royals, senior politicians and other guests attended a jubilee reception at the Guildhall in central London following the service. Vincent Keaveny, lord mayor of the city, has given a speech to guests. In it, he praised the Queen’s decades of “continuity, stability and unity” during her long reign.
- Television viewing figures for the first day of the Queen’s jubilee were substantially down on previous royal occasions, although millions still tuned in. A peak audience of 7.5 million people watched the BBC’s broadcast of trooping the colour on Thursday, as it kicked off a long weekend of coverage to celebrate 70 years of the Queen’s reign.
- The Queen had a “lovely” time at Thursday’s platinum jubilee celebrations but found the day “very tiring”, the Duchess of Cambridge is said to have told an attendee at a Guildhall reception.
- Thunderstorms could dampen platinum jubilee festivities, with the Met Office issuing a weather warning for southern England. Forecasters are predicting heavy rain and lightning in some places and a yellow warning has been put in place from midnight until 10am on Saturday.
Thanks so much for joining me today. We are closing this liveblog now.
Our liveblog on the Russia-Ukraine war is still live and can be viewed here:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s return to Britain has, so far, been extremely low key.
Invited by the Queen to join the family for the platinum jubilee celebrations, the couple were never going to be on the balcony for the official flypast after trooping the colour. They were, however, invited to watch the ceremony, along with other members of the royal family, from offices overlooking Horse Guards Parade.
But for the endeavours of long-lens photographers who managed to capture through the window grainy shots of the two briefly larking around with the young children of Zara and Mike Tindall, there was little evidence they were even present.
St Paul’s Cathedral was always going to be the event for their first public engagement with other family members since they quit royal duties and the UK. It could have had echoes of the last time Harry and Meghan were seen with William and Kate, when the couples barely acknowledged each other at the Commonwealth Day service in March 2020.
But aides appeared to have averted any such comparison by seating the Sussexes far away from the Cambridges – and, indeed, from the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. Their place on the second row, behind the Wessexes and separated from the most senior royals by an aisle, was indicative of their reduced official status as non-working royals, despite Harry’s bloodline.
Neither did the couple attend a reception at the Guildhall after the service of thanksgiving. Staying at Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, their first marital home, they are a stone’s throw from the Queen at Windsor Castle.
There is speculation that Harry and Meghan could choose to have their daughter Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday, christened while at Windsor.
Updated
