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Politics

21st Jun 2017

Dennis Skinner heckles Black Rod with joke about Queen missing Royal Ascot

"Get your skates on"

Simon Lloyd

It was an important day at the House of Commons.

The Queen’s speech, which had originally been due to take place on Monday, had been rescheduled to take place on Wednesday.

As is tradition, Black Rod arrived to summon MPs to the Queen’s speech and when he did, he was greeted by a heckle from Dennis Skinner, who appeared more concerned with the speech clashing with the first race of the day at Royal Ascot.

“Get your skates on. The first race is at half past two,” the 85-year-old Labour politician joked, bringing laughter from other MPs.

The Queen is usually in attendance at Royal Ascot, but has missed out this year due to the rescheduling of the speech.