Queen Elizabeth II spared my blushes in awkward moments, MPs recall

You're in a formal meeting with the Queen and the inescapable sound of your phone rings out. What do you do?

One former Labour cabinet minister, Clare Short, once found herself in this unfortunate scenario.

As the story is commonly told by MPs, Ms Short arrived late to a meeting of the Privy Council when her phone went off as proceedings began.

She frantically rummaged through her handbag but, to her embarrassment, was unable to find the phone before the ringtone stopped and the room fell silent.

"Oh dear, I hope it wasn't anyone important," the Queen said, according to politicians present.

The story was told by Labour's shadow home secretary and Privy Council member Yvette Cooper, as MPs gathered in Parliament for a second consecutive day of special tributes to the Queen.

MPs and peers from all sides, dressed in dark clothing, having been sharing memories of their encounters with the Queen, who died aged 96 on Thursday.

They took part in a rare Saturday sitting to pay their respects.

Ms Cooper said her anecdote showed the Queen had a "sense of mischief", a quality that others have reflected on in their recollections of the late monarch.

Many of these accounts have focused on the Queen's dry sense of humour and her ability to comfort them in nerve-jangling moments of high ceremony, under the watchful eyes of officialdom.

Conservative former transport secretary Grant Shapps told MPs how the Queen had spared his blushes after an awkward moment during his Privy Council swearing-in ceremony.

The Privy Council is a formal body, mainly made up of senior politicians, which advises the Queen.

Mr Shapps said he did not understand the meaning of the phrase "brush her hand" as part of the ceremonial oath-taking.

Fifth in the line to become a privy counsellor, he said he had hoped to watch what other ministers were doing but his vision was blocked, leaving him unable to do so.

He said: "She [the Queen] stretched out her bare ungloved right hand and to my surprise moved it towards my face, it moved towards my lips. I pursed my lips. It's stuck!"

As he made a suction noise with his lips, Mr Shapps said the Queen suddenly "her hand pulled away".

The former minister said he wanted the ground to "swallow me whole" but, performing an impression of the Queen, he said: "She looked me right in the eyes with those wonderful sparkling eyes, and as though to acknowledge what had happened and also to forgive me in one turn, she said: 'yes'."

Conservative MP Robert Halfon also spoke about the Privy Council in his speech, recalling his disbelief at becoming a member of the monarch's advisory body.

When he became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party in 2015, "no-one had informed me that I would be made a Privy Counsellor", Mr Halfon said.

"My constituency office got a call saying I needed to attend the palace and I replied to my caseworker, 'There's just a nutter on the phone, just ignore it'," Mr Halfon said. "This happened on two or three telephone calls."

He said it was only when a ministerial car came to pick him up and take him to Buckingham Palace that he "realised, sadly, that I would've bought a nicer suit had I known".

Mr Halfon, who was born with a form of cerebral palsy, said he "was not able to kneel because of my legs, but Her Majesty did not bat an eyelid".

Admissions of nervousness before appointments with the Queen was a common theme and one evoked by Sir John Redwood, a minister in former Prime Minister John Major's government.

He said the Queen was understanding that everyone was "terrified" at official events, and sought to ease them.

In public events, Sir John said, "the Queen always relaxed people and showed them there was no right way, because she was there for the people, she was there for the institution, she was there for the event, and that is what we can learn from".

Meanwhile in the House of Lords - where peers also sat for Saturday tributes to the monarch - there was no shortage of light-hearted tales about the Queen either.

Her propensity for levity was bought up by Lord Robertson, who recalled the day he brought the then crown prince of Saudi Arabia to meet the Queen at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.

Defence secretary at the time, Lord Robertson said the Saudi crown prince had "accepted an offer from her to see the estate".

"But boy, was he astounded coming from a country which bans women from driving, to find the Queen behind the wheel of the Land Rover and then roaring off without the rest of the party."

When they returned to Balmoral Castle, the Queen looked at Lord Robertson and said: "I think he thought I was driving too fast."

"So I said nothing at all," Lord Robertson said.

He continued: "Then she said, 'I also think he thought I was lost'. So I bravely said, 'You can't get lost, you're the Queen, and where you are is where you're supposed to be'. She frowned at me and then said emphatically: 'Quite right', and marched away."

Another colourful anecdote came from the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who revealed how he once "healed" the late Queen's Bentley after it refused to start.

The archbishop recounted how the monarch's vehicle eventually fired up after he performed "a large sign of the cross" over it, earning royal praise.

"The Queen gets in and goes back to Sandringham. I follow in another car," he said.

"When I arrive at Sandringham as I come into lunch, the Queen with a beaming smile says 'Ah, bishop. It's the bishop. He healed my car'."

The cleric added: "Two years later when I was greeting her at the west front of Chelmsford Cathedral just as a very grand service was about to start... she took me to one side and said 'Bishop, nice to see you again. I think the car's all right today, but if I have any problems I will know where to come'."