Grant Shapps tells MPs how Queen saved him from embarrassment after he kissed her hand

He told the Commons how the Queen saved him from feeling embarrassed at the Privy Council swearing-in ceremony

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Grant Shapps' mortifying anecdote about the queen's hand kiss

Curator Grant Shapps told a mortifying anecdote of the Queen's hand-kissing as MPs paid their respects to the late monarch.

The former Transport Secretary rose to speak during a second day of tributes in the House of Commons.

He told the Commons how the Queen saved him from feeling embarrassed during the Privy Council swearing-in ceremony.

During the 'long and complex' process to become a Privy Councilor at Buckingham Palace, Mr Shapps said he did not understand the meaning of 'brushing your hand' as part of the ceremony of taking the oath.

"Brush your hand? Was it an instruction to brush your hand with my hand, or a sleeve, or a handkerchief? And as I was about to ask, we were called to execution reality of the grand ceremony itself," he said.

Fifth in line to become Privy Councillor, Mr Shapps said he was unable to watch what other ministers were doing in front of him, telling the Commons: 'She stretched out her bare, ungloved right hand and, to my surprise, moved it to my face, it moved to my lips. I pursed my lips. It stuck!"

With a lip snap, Mr. Shapps added: "In what seemed like an age she was trying to pull it out and then all of a sudden... her hand pulled out."

The former minister said he wanted the ground to "swallow me whole", but added: "She looked me straight in the eye with those wonderful sparkling eyes, and as if to recognize what had happened and also to forgive me in one go. , she said 'Yes'.

"We never talked about it again - God Save the King."

Later, a former Labor minister told the Commons how he had become more sympathetic to the monarchy later in life, having never felt a strong connection to it in his youth.

Knowsley MP Sir George Howarth said: 'I must confess that I have not always felt in favor of the principle of the monarchy. As a young local councilor I once attended a ceremony at which the Loyal Toast to the Queen was offered.

"I foolishly refused to participate, standing firm in my place. My non-participation resulted in comments in our local newspaper and a strong backlash from the people I represented.

"I learned two lessons from this episode - the first was that courting controversy unnecessarily was not a good thing to do, and second, that the people held our constitutional monarchy and the Queen in particular in a respect and enormous affection."

He added: "By the time I was elected to this House, more than a decade later, I had come to the conclusion that Her Majesty and the Monar...