Deadline for confirming attendance at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral arrives as Leeds pays further tributes - live updates

The King asked two children “Are you enjoying your day off school?” as they presented him and the Queen Consort with chocolates and flowers upon their arrival in Northern Ireland.

Charles and Camilla are leading the UK in a period of national mourning for the Queen, but local schoolchildren Lucas Watt and Ella Smith, both 10, appeared to brighten their day with gifts.

On meeting Charles at George Best Belfast City Airport, Lucas said: “He said it’s a pleasure to meet us and that we are getting a day out of school.

“I felt quite anxious but, when it was over, quite happy and probably going to look back at it for quite a long time.”

King Charles III and his Queen Consort have arrived in Belfast - the next leg of their tour of the home nations - where they will receive a message of condolence from the people of Northern Ireland.

Charles and Camilla left Edinburgh for Northern Ireland after the new monarch and his siblings staged a vigil around their mother’s coffin on Monday evening at St Giles’ Cathedral.

The couple’s jet touched down at George Best Belfast City Airport, where the new Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was waiting to greet the King and his wife.

Royal visits usually prompt gifts and, despite the solemnity of the occasion, schoolboy Lucas, drawn from a local cross-community primary school, presented the King with a tin featuring an image of the famous Giant’s Causeway.

The King looked pleased and tapped the present from Art on a Tin, a business set up by couple Bill and Caroline Skillen to promote local artists, and filled with truffles made by the Chocolate Manor from the Northern Ireland seaside village of Castlerock.

Camilla received a posy of flowers, from schoolgirl Ella, with the blooms taken from Hillsborough Castle.

Leeds Minster will tonight host a Service of Commemoration for the Queen at 7.30pm.

The service will be led by the Archdeacon of Leeds, Ven Paul Ayers, and the sermon will be given by the Rt Rev Arun Arora, the newly installed Bishop of Kirkstall.

Music will be provided by the Minster Choir and St Peter’s Singers, under the Director of Music Alex Woodrow. The choir will sing the anthem And I Saw a New Heaven and a New Earth by Edgar Bainton and prayers will be said by the Rev Lizzy Woolf, Rector of St George’s Church in Leeds.

All are very welcome to attend as the City of Leeds pays its respects.

The Queen’s coffin will be flown from Edinburgh to London this evening rather than being carried by the Royal Train.

The journey by train had long been part of the plans should the monarch die in Scotland, so it has come as a surprise to many that a flight to to RAF Northolt is being undertaken instead.

Rail industry experts have shed some light on why that could be:

Mourners in Edinburgh have shown up in their “tens of thousands” to pay their respects to the Queen, with many queueing for hours overnight.

Lord Ian Duncan, the Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords, said crowds along the Royal Mile were “ten-deep”, while the streets surrounding the historic precinct were equally crammed with people.

“That is an extraordinary outpouring of respect, grief, celebration of an extraordinary woman,” he said.

While many people were warned to expect a 12-hour wait to see the monarch’s coffin at St Giles’ Cathedral, those who queued overnight said their wait-time was five or six hours.

Gavin Hamilton, from Edinburgh, made into the cathedral just before 3am this morning.

He said: “There were people in the queue with me who had travelled from Aberdeen, over 100 miles away, to do this. There were thousands of people in line at 12.30am at the start of the queue.

“The people were still (lining up) after 2.50 am when I got into the cathedral.”

Members of the public started going into the cathedral at about 6pm on Monday.

Shortly after 6am on Tuesday the Scottish Government said the approximate waiting time was roughly two hours but added that that is expected to lengthen during the morning.

It advised people wishing to join the queue to go prepared and dressed for the weather.

Live coverage of the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be shown on the big screen in Millennium Square, the council has confirmed.

The screening is expected to be shown on Monday between 10am-6pm, although the times are subject to confirmation of TV broadcast schedules.

Entry to the designated viewing area will be free (subject to capacity) with a limited number of seating options provided on a first come first served basis.

People are also welcome to bring their own small portable chairs, food and or hot drinks if they wish.

A selection of onsite food stalls will also be available.

The venue security team will be running bag searches ahead of entering the designated viewing area and strictly no alcohol, glass or large items of furniture will be permitted.

Tuesday marks D-Day +4, or D+4, in the plans marking the Queen’s death.

The Queen’s coffin will make a poignant journey to Buckingham Palace today while the King will travel to Northern Ireland for the first time as monarch.

The King and Queen Consort fly to Belfast for a series of engagements, including meeting political leaders at Hillsborough Castle; a service at St Anne’s Cathedral; and a walkabout at Writers’ Square.

At 5pm, the Queen’s coffin will leave St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.

At 6pm, the coffin will depart Edinburgh Airport accompanied by the Princess Royal; from 6.55pm it will arrive at RAF Northolt in west London, from there it will be transported to Buckingham Palace on a state hearse.

Speaking to the YEP, Leader of Leeds City Council Cllr James Lewis said: “People have been talking about her steadfastness; she’s been the one constant as the country has changed around them.

“What’s really interesting is people’s memory of her visits to Leeds over the last 70 years. I remember as a five-year-old, lining up alongside the Coal Road in Whinmoor to open up a new factory, and lots if people have those memories of the Queen’s visits to Leeds.”

The Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin was in Leeds today to sign a condolence book in memory of Queen Elizabeth II.

Arriving at the Leeds Civic Hall earlier this afternoon, the Mayor left a heartfelt message in the book, noting her admiration for the monarch.