Theresa May curtseyed to the Queen for a final time as she joined members of the public to pay her respects to the late monarch.
The former Prime Minister, the 13th UK leader of Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign, then paused for a solemn moment of reflection on Thursday morning as she filed past the Queen’s coffin.
She was accompanied by her husband, Philip, who also paid respects to Her Majesty by bowing his head.
Ms May was joined by mourners who had queued for hours for a chance to see the Queen’s coffin, which will lie in state until 6.30am Monday, the day of the funeral.
Speaking earlier this week, Ms May paid tribute to the Queen as “the most remarkable person” and an “example of devotion to duty”.
She said she feared that the sense of duty embodied by the late monarch may be slipping away in public life.
“I think maybe there is a slight loss of that sense of duty,” she said on ITV’s Lorraine.
She also described Queen Elizabeth as a “good hostess” who would happily play cards as guests mingled at Balmoral.
There would be occasions when, perhaps, everybody, guests, were milling around, perhaps chatting to each other, and the Queen was quite happy to sit in the room playing patience,” she said.
“She didn't feel the need for everybody to be paying attention to her all the time.”
The former PM had previously told in Parliament during a special sitting of tributes to the Queen of her embarrassment at dropping cheese in front of Her Majesty, drawing laughter from MPs.
She described the late monarch as “quite simply the most remarkable person I have ever met”.
A queue to see the Queen’s coffin stretched for more than three miles on Thursday morning from Westminster to Tower Bridge.
