Coronation celebrations continue with the Big Lunch before tomorrow’s Big Help Out
Thousands of street parties are expected to be held today, with people coming together across the UK for the Coronation Big Lunch.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will attend a Big Lunch in Cranleigh, the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence will attend a community street party in Swindon, and Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie will attend a Big Lunch in Windsor.
A palace spokeswoman said the Big Lunches will take place through to Monday in “a nationwide act of celebration and friendship”.
Those holding street parties and Big Lunch events will be hoping for better weather than most of the country saw on Saturday, which was dominated by drizzle and rain.
After the weather, the next most important aspect of the event will be the food: research commissioned by Nextdoor shows that the top party food is the sausage roll, with 21% of Britons stating these are a must-have, followed by cakes (20%), British finger sandwiches (20%) and BBQ chicken (16%).
During the Queen’s coronation in 1953, thousands of people celebrated with street parties throughout the country and the Commonwealth. The table spreads featured sandwiches, fancy cakes and sometimes, jelly.
Lucinda Spelman-Ives, from Wilstock, who raised over £1m to fund a community hub, said she hoped the Big Lunch would “unify and bring everyone together being part of history, making amazing memories, laughing and meeting lots of people who have never met before”.
Kate Welch, chairwoman of Acumen Community Buildings at The Old Rectory in Sunderland, and part of one of the biggest parties in the North East said: “The coronation badge is shining from our building, we’ve made lots of red, white, and blue chains with bunting and flags out in force.
Lots of street parties were also organised for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last year
Residents in Kent made cakes for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
“We expect 4,000 people to join us tomorrow for Houghton-le-Spring’s Coronation Big Lunch, and the whole town is buzzing with excitement.”
Emily Connally, who leads the Cherwell Collective in Oxford, an organisation encouraging sustainable living, said her team is “buzzing with excitement”, adding: “We’ve laid tables using only surplus decorations including cut flowers.
“We’re cooking food for an expected 500 people using only surplus and food we grow within one mile.
“We’re even doing our take on the official Big Lunch dish.”
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On Sunday evening all eyes will be on Windsor Castle, which will host a star-studded coronation concert watched by the King and Queen and 20,000 members of the public.
Performers include Take That, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Paloma Faith and Olly Murs, along with classical artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Sir Bryn Terfel, and Lang Lang.
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Children’s Street Party 1953
A street party in Blackpool on Coronation Day in 1953
The show will be hosted by Paddington and Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville, with video messages from Hollywood star Tom Cruise, Dynasty actress Dame Joan Collins, adventurer Bear Grylls and singer Sir Tom Jones.
The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal College of Music and the Royal College of Art will also come together for the first time for a performance featuring Sex Education and Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa and Olivier Award nominee Mei Mac.
Monday will see attention move to the Big Help Out, described by the palace as a way to “highlight the positive impact volunteering has on communities across the nation”.
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What do children want from the King?
A spokesperson said: “In tribute to the King’s public service, it will encourage people to try volunteering and join the work being undertaken to support their local areas.”
An estimated 6.5 million people have said they plan to take part in the Big Help Out, according to the spokesperson, who added that events include community litter picking and signing up for longer-term volunteering opportunities.
The palace said that, while “wholly supportive” of the Big Help Out initiatives on Monday, Charles and Camilla will not be attending the events.
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Coronation: Quirkiest facts
On Saturday King Charles III’s coronation brought together around 100 heads of state, royals from across the globe, celebrities, everyday heroes and family and friends of the Royal Family.
This was followed by some 4,000 servicemen and women from around the world taking part in a coronation procession through the heart of London.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
Read more on grooming gangs:
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A timeline of the scandal
Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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