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The Queen meets, from left to right, Scottish first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale at the opening of the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

The Queen has issued a clear warning to the UK’s political leaders to remain “calm and collected” after the vote to leave the EU, as she formally opened the new session of the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.



Making her fifth opening speech at Holyrood before formal processions through central Edinburgh, the Queen made no explicit mention of the referendum or the chaos now gripping the Tory and Labour parties, but she told MSPs that true leadership demanded “deeper, cooler” thinking in times of turbulence.



She said new parliaments were “rightly a time for hope and optimism and the beginning of this new session in particular brings with it a real sense of renewal, with your largest intake of new members since 1999 [the year the devolved parliament was established].”



The monarch then added: “Of course we all live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world, where events and developments can and do take place at remarkable speed. And retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard.

“As this parliament has successfully demonstrated over the years, one hallmark of leadership in such a fast-moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation which can enable deeper, cooler consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed.”



Holyrood’s presiding officer, Ken McIntosh, had introduced the Queen by mentioning the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox in West Yorkshire and the Orlando gay nightclub shootings in the US, noting that the session was being opened after “weeks of unprecedented political turbulence” which had “borne witness to the politics of hate”.