Business pays tribute after death of the Queen

A num­ber of busi­ness groups have shared mes­sages of con­do­lence to the Roy­al Fam­i­ly, fol­low­ing the death of the Queen.

Ear­li­er today, Her Majesty’s doc­tors raised con­cerns about her health and “rec­om­mend­ed she remain under med­ical super­vi­sion”. At 6.30pm, Buck­ing­ham Palace con­firmed that the Queen had died.

The 96-year-old monarch cel­e­brat­ed her Plat­inum Jubilee, mark­ing 70 years since her acces­sion to the throne, ear­li­er this year. Dur­ing her reign, there have been 15 dif­fer­ent UK prime min­is­ters, the lat­est of which, Liz Truss, met with the Queen in her Bal­moral res­i­dence on Tues­day.

The Insti­tute of Direc­tors direc­tor gen­er­al Jonathan Gel­dart says: “It is with great sad­ness that we mourn the loss of Her Majesty Queen Eliz­a­beth.

“In her 70 years on the throne, the Queen showed a self­less com­mit­ment and ded­i­ca­tion to the Unit­ed King­dom and the Com­mon­wealth. She was loved and held in the high­est esteem by the peo­ple of her coun­try and around the world.

“The thoughts of the IoD and all our mem­bers are with Her Majesty and the Roy­al Fam­i­ly at this very sad time.”

The British Cham­bers of Com­merce also shared its reac­tion to the news of the Queen’s death. In a state­ment it says: “She was a great sup­port­er of busi­ness through­out her reign. On behalf of the Cham­ber Net­work we would like to extend our heart­felt con­do­lences to the Roy­al Fam­i­ly on their pro­found loss.”

British entre­pre­neur and founder of the Vir­gin Group Richard Bran­son paid his respects to the Queen, who he says “rede­fined what it means to be a leader”.

He adds: “The Queen has been a con­stant pres­ence in pub­lic life for near­ly as long as I have been alive – I was two when she took the British throne. She lived a life of ser­vice, stand­ing for the best of British val­ues, pro­vid­ing grace and con­sis­ten­cy in an ever-chang­ing world.

“I’ve had the plea­sure of meet­ing The Queen many times over the years and I’ve always admired her strength of spir­it and sense of duty. From attend­ing roy­al gath­er­ings to events cel­e­brat­ing entre­pre­neur­ship – the Queen always had such a dig­ni­fied, sto­ic pres­ence. She was extreme­ly calm, very astute and a great lis­ten­er – all excel­lent qual­i­ties in a leader.”

Tony Danker, direc­tor gen­er­al of the Con­fed­er­a­tion of British Indus­try, joined the UK busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in mourn­ing the pass­ing of the Queen. In a state­ment he says: “Through­out her unprece­dent­ed 70 years on the throne, Queen Eliz­a­beth II served the nation with dis­tinc­tion as a stal­wart exam­ple of British val­ues of hon­our, dig­ni­ty and resilience. She ded­i­cat­ed her life to the peo­ple of the UK and the Com­mon­wealth, pro­vid­ing com­pas­sion­ate and inspi­ra­tional lead­er­ship dur­ing the many chal­leng­ing times of her long reign.

“Times are hard right now – made more so by the loss of our much-loved Queen – and our trib­ute should be to work tire­less­ly to build a bet­ter future for the peo­ple of this coun­try in mem­o­ry of Her Majesty.”

The Fed­er­a­tion of Small Busi­ness­es, which rep­re­sents SMEs across the UK, sent a mes­sage in response to this after­noon’s news too, say­ing: “We send our thoughts and con­do­lences to the Roy­al Fam­i­ly fol­low­ing the sad news of the pass­ing of Her Majesty The Queen.”

CEO of the Char­tered Insti­tute for Per­son­nel and Devel­op­ment Peter Cheese says: “We are thank­ful for Her Majesty’s ser­vice, and for grant­i­ng our Roy­al Char­ter in 2000, which we hold in the deep­est regard.

“On behalf of every­one at the CIPD, we send our sin­cere and heart­felt con­do­lences to the Roy­al Fam­i­ly for their immea­sur­able loss.”