Gareth Southgate urges UK to hold huge ‘thank you’ party for Queen’s jubilee

Gareth Southgate is hoping to help lead what could be the UK’s biggest ever appreciation party during the Queen’s jubilee celebrations.

The England manager – alongside celebrities including Ross Kemp, Gary Lineker and Levi Roots – is aiming to encourage millions of people to take part in neighbourhood parties across the country in June celebrating community spirit and the Queen on what they have dubbed National Thank You Day.

It would need to surpass the 10 million party-goers who marked the Queen’s first 25 years on the throne in 1977 and similar numbers who celebrated the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981 to stand a chance of entering the record books.

The plan is backed by hundreds of organisations including the NHS, the Football Association, the Scouts, and the Church of England. Celebrity backers, also including Prue Leith, Alan Titchmarsh and Lorraine Kelly, will be raising the event’s profile in the runup to Sunday 5 June, the final day of the Queen’s official jubilee celebrations.

Kemp, who made his name on the BBC soap EastEnders, said the day was an opportunity to thank each other as well as the Queen. “It’s our chance to say a great big thank you to the Queen for 70 years of service, but also to each other – the people in our own lives – families, streets and communities, who we rely on every day,” he said. “The people whose support we couldn’t do without.”

He urged people to get together on the day in unprecedented numbers. “Make sure everyone is invited – rope in the neighbours, ask people from the next street over, get the local band to play.”

Peter Stewart, executive director of the Eden Project and the Big Jubilee Lunch, said the day would bring people together. “There are more reasons than ever to get together this year and we’re really excited to be bringing the spirit of the jubilee into every neighbourhood with the Big Jubilee Lunch this June,” he said.

National Thank You Day, which started last year, is organised by a coalition, ranging from grassroots community groups to some of the UK’s best-known institutions. It is supported by the national lottery community fund.