Blair: leading tributes

Tony Blair has led parliament in remembering a woman "who came to embody the best of our past and made us optimistic about our future".

The prime minister said the Queen Mother was "gloriously unstoppable" and "loved life".

"We should remember the Queen Mother for her great sense of fun and her zest for life," said Blair.

"Her enthusiasm and humour shone through in all she did, whether handing out shamrocks to the Irish Guards on St Patrick's Day, inspecting the Chelsea pensioners, or indulging her lifelong and very serious passion for horseracing."

He also offered his own personal recollection of the former monarch - who combined "high integrity" and "simple humanity".

"One of my best memories of her personally is sitting with her at Balmoral as she told me of her personal recollections not just of Churchill and Attlee, but of Asquith, Lloyd George and Baldwin," he said.

Blair said the country's thoughts should also be with the Queen in her time of grief.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all the Royal Family and especially with Her Majesty The Queen, who has in the space of a few weeks so cruelly suffered the loss of both her sister and mother," he said.

"The Queen has borne it with her customary dignity, continuing to serve the nation even while grieving."

Sombre Mood

His remarks came as MPs and peers gathered at Westminster in a relaxed but respectful mood to pay their respects to the former monarch.

Blair was followed by the leader of the opposition, Iain Duncan Smith, and the Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, at a session attended by around 300 MPs.

Duncan Smith said the Queen Mother was a "remarkable lady" who was "simply the best of us".

"When her country needed it most, she gave her inner strength and her wonderful personality," he said. "In doing so she embodied what is good and noble about the people of our country."

He told the Commons that her "life embraced a century of tumultuous change".

Kennedy said the Queen Mother "was the bond between the monarchy and the people of this country".

The Democratic Unionist leader Dr Ian Paisley said her death marked a time of "national sorrow".

Michael Howard, the shadow chancellor, said she would be "much missed" throughout the country.

Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes, who represents an east end constituency, said she had "encouraged and inspired" the Capital during the blitz.

"Whether people were monarchists or republicans, they thought she was a star," he said.

The senior Tory MP Sir Patrick Cormack called on the government to make next Tuesday a public holiday to allow the country to remember the former monarch.

"It would be very appropriate that we should try to commemorate the Queen Mother in a very tangible and proper way of all that she did and stood for," he said.

"We are commemorating the life of the most remarkable woman of the 20th Century, who has touched all our lives directly and indirectly and who will never be forgotten, but whose memory should never be forgotten either.''

David Trimble, the first minister of Northern Ireland, said the Queen Mother had won the hearts and minds of people "right across the political spectrum".

Statement call

But the event was not without controversy after the government rejected backbench demands for a statement on the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

A group of MPs said that the foreign secretary should make a statement on a rapidly deteriorating situation as Israel steps up military action against Palestinians.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Tam Dalyell, who told the Commons that the Queen Mother was "profoundly concerned about Scotland", called for a statement and short debate on the West Bank crisis.

"It would be wise for the government to make a statement," he told ePolitix.com.

"It looks very odd to the country that there are tanks in Manger Square and the events in Ramallah. I would be asking for a recall of parliament had it not been for the death of the Queen Mother."

Downing Street, however, continued to insist that the sole purpose of this morning's debate is to pay tribute to the former monarch.

The decision to bring MPs back from their Easter holiday was being seen as further evidence of the high esteem in which the Queen Mother is held.

However, some MPs questioned the need for the recall - dismissing today's debate as "mawkish".

The House of Lords was also sitting, with the leader, Lord Williams of Mostyn, taking the lead role, before senior peers paid their own tributes to the Queen Mother.

Over recent months parliament has been recalled on three occasions to debate the attacks of September 11 and the subsequent war on terror.

Other events which prompted a recall of parliament included the Omagh bombing in 1998, the Gulf war in 1990 and the occupation of the Falklands in 1982, bringing the total since the Second World War to 21.