Queen promised ‘day to remember’ for start of five-month Jubilee tour

The monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh will travel to every region of the country.

Leicester’s City Mayor, Peter Soulsby, welcomed the announcement, saying: “I am very proud that Leicester will be the first stop on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Tour. Leicester has an excellent reputation for hosting celebrations, and I am confident we will give the Royal party a day to remember.”

The Diamond Jubilee tours will take the Queen and Duke from the Isle of Wight to Birmingham and from Merthyr Tydfil to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The royal couple will travel around the country between early March and late July by car, royal train, aircraft and the ship Leander.

They will spend March 23 in Manchester and Salford but will not return to the north of England until May 16-17, when they will visit Burnley, Accrington, Warrington, Chester and Liverpool.

Leeds will be among the places visited on July 18 and 19, when the tour will also bring the Queen and Duke to Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Gateshead, Durham and Stockton-on-Tees.

Earlier that month, they will visit Scotland and the West Midlands. The South of England will be last on their itinerary – on July 25 – when they will go to Cowes on the Isle of Wight and the New Forest in Hampshire.