Biden arrives for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral

President Joe Biden and his wife Jill have arrived at Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

Biden, wearing a black suit and tie, was seen holding Jill’s hand as they walked through the famous church to pay their respects to the monarch.

The President and First Lady traveled in his motorcade, known as the ‘Beast’, alongside five other security vehicles to be among the first world leaders to arrive at Westminster Abbey – despite getting stuck in traffic en route to the funeral.

Westminster Abbey began filling up from 8am as the congregation arrived up to three hours early, with Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron being among world leaders who are paying their respects to the late monarch.

Huge crowds of mourners packed the procession route outside and tens of thousands more went to Windsor, where Her Majesty will be buried later today. 

Earlier, Biden’s armoured limousine came to a grinding halt outside a Pret a Manger coffee shop in central London as he made his way to Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral. 

Biden and Jill were seen in the back of ‘The Beast’ as it got stuck in the busy London traffic this morning.  

While other world leaders, including Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, are arriving at Westminster Abbey for the Queen‘s funeral in a fleet of buses, Biden was allowed to ride in The Beast. 

But commentators have quipped that Biden might as well have taken the bus after video shows his motorcade rolling slowly through the streets of London before coming to a grinding halt outside a Pret coffee shop.

Video shows members of the public waving and taking pictures of the President as Met Police officers stood guard.

A member of the Met Police Special Escort Group was seen racing past the Beast on a motorbike to clear the traffic ahead.

Today, up to a million people are lining the streets of London to say a final farewell to the Queen, while leaders and royalty from across the world will attend her state funeral.

Road closures are in place across the city ahead of the Queen’s funeral – but Biden hit some of the remaining traffic today while traveling to Windsor Castle.

A 12-mile ring of steel has been imposed in the heart of the capital along with the route the late monarch’s coffin will take to Windsor later today, where she will ultimately be laid to rest.

Despite the widespread closures, huge crowds flocked into central London this morning for the funeral service.

A day packed with funeral events in London and Windsor began early when the doors of 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed in front of her coffin since September 14. 

Many of them had spent cold nights outdoors to pay their respects around the queen’s flag-draped coffin in a moving outpouring of national grief and respect.

The closing of the hall marked the end of more than four days of the coffin lying in state and the start of the U.K.’s first state funeral since the one held in 1965 for Winston Churchill, the first of 15 prime ministers during Elizabeth’s reign. 

For the funeral, Elizabeth’s coffin will be taken from Westminster Hall, across the road to Westminster Abbey, on a royal gun carriage drawn by 142 Royal Navy sailors. The same carriage was used to carry the coffins of late kings Edward VII, George V and George VI, and of Churchill.

The service, in the Gothic medieval abbey where Elizabeth was married in 1947 and crowned in 1953, will be attended by 2,000 people ranging from world leaders to health care workers and volunteers. 

It will end with two minutes of silence followed by the national anthem and a piper’s lament, before the queen’s coffin is taken in a procession ringed by units of the armed forces in dress uniforms, with the queen’s children walking behind, to Wellington Arch near Hyde Park.

There, it will be placed in a hearse to be driven to Windsor for another procession along the Long Walk, a three-mile avenue leading to the town’s castle, before a committal service in St. George’s Chapel. She will then be laid to rest with her late husband, Prince Philip, at a private family service.

Biden and other world leaders, as well as top foreign dignitaries, spent yesterday evening at Buckingham Palace to pay their respects to King Charles ahead of the Queen’s funeral today – in what was described by some as the ‘reception of the century’. 

During one of the largest gatherings of world leaders seen in recent years the newly crowned Monarch and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, greeted Biden and Jill as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, for the glittering but sombre event.

Such a reception involving world leaders and British royals has not seen since the death of Queen Elizabeth II’s father George VI in 1952, more than 70 years ago.

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins was seen being dropped off from a coach along with the former King and Queen Consort of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofia and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, before the British royal couple met hundreds of dignitaries, including New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Canadian premier Justin Trudeau. 

The Prince and Princess of Wales and other working members of the royal family including the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester joined Charles and the Queen Consort in mingling with guests including Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and the Kings and Queens from Holland, Norway and Sweden. 

Meanwhile, Biden paid his respects with Jill at the Queen’s coffin on Sunday before recalling how the late monarch reminded him of his own mother.

The President and First Lady were seen standing on a VIP balcony looking down at the Queen’s coffin on Sunday afternoon which was under constant guard and draped in flags.

Biden touched his hand to his heart and appeared to snap off a quick salute to the late monarch in a gesture of respect, before continuing on through the hall.

He later travelled to Lancaster House where he signed the book of condolence, and told reporters that he would remember how the Queen treated everyone with ‘dignity’ and her 70 years of service.

After paying their respects to the late monarch, Biden joined King Charles and scores of other world leaders and royals for a reception at Buckingham Palace.

The president said the Queen treated people with ‘dignity’, adding: ‘I talk about my mother and father, [they] thought that everyone, no matter who they were, no matter what their station, no matter where they’re from, deserved to be treated with dignity. 

‘And that’s exactly what she [Her Majesty] communicated, just the way she walked by her staff, just the way she acted. And I think what she gave is a sense of, maybe above all, the notion of service. 

‘We all owe something, there’s something in our capacity to do, that can make things, not just the world, but your neighbourhood better, your household better, your workplace better. 

‘And that’s what she communicated to me anyway and it was an honour to meet her.’