The Queen has been praised for her dedication to public service, commitment to Scotland and status as a feminist icon by MPs in a session that saw even staunch republican Jeremy Corbyn pay tribute to the monarch.

The Labour leader said that he admired her energy and devotion to her role, as he also jokingly outed the Queen as a secret football fan.

But there was embarrassment as the session ended three hours earlier than planned when a smaller than expected number of MPs turned up to speak.

A total of six hours had been set aside for the session.

But just 29 of Westminster's 650 MPs chose to take part.

David Cameron had earlier described the Queen as a "rock of strength for our nation".

He told MPs that such is the length of her reign that she has met a quarter of all American presidents since independence.

She is also, he announced, the only female to have ever driven the King of Saudi Arabia, where women are prohibited from driving, during a visit to Balmoral.

Mr Corbyn, who appeared to have abandoned his usual trousers and jacket for a matching suit, told MPs even more startling news about the Queen.

Locals close to Arsenal’s playing ground in London harbour the private view "that she is secretly a Gooner", he announced to laughs.

There had been speculation that Mr Corbyn, a life-long republican, would struggle to pay tribute to the monarch.

But to the the obvious surprise of some Tory backbenchers, he told the chamber: “I wish her a very happy 90th birthday.”

The veteran left-winger also joked: 'May I say, as a relatively young whippersnapper, I'm fully in favour of our country having leaders of a finer vintage?'"

The SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Roberston paid tribute to the monarch’s close links with Scotland.

He added that it had recently emerged that she was an "accomplished speaker of the Doric - which frankly is no mean feat".

His fellow SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh described the Queen as “above politics" saying that she acted "overall in the national interest” and was a “modern and model” monarch.

The Queen was widely reported to have intervened in the independence referendum in 2014, when she was quoted as saying that she hoped that voters would "think very carefully about the future".

But the tributes ended after less than three hours because of a lack of MPs.

During the session the chamber was only half full, with spaces on the benches of all political parties.