Sir Keir Starmer and Labour ministers have begun to arrive at Lord John Prescott’s funeral.
More than 300 family members, friends and colleagues have been invited to Lord Prescott’s service at Hull Minster.
Lord Prescott, who served as deputy prime minister under Sir Tony Blair between 1997 and 2007, died on November 20 last year aged 86 in a nursing home where he had been living with Alzheimer’s.
It comes as Rachell Reeves signalled Heathrow’s third runway could be built and in use by 2035.
Asked for a timeline on the plans, which she backed on Wednesday, the Chancellor told BBC Breakfast: “We want to see spades in the ground in this Parliament.”
Pressed when flights would take off from the airport, the Chancellor added: “I think we can get that done in a decade.”
Ms Reeves support for Heathrow will see her face down Labour critics and environmental campaigners, and figures from the aviation industry have voiced scepticism about the plans.
Meanwhile, health secretary Wes Streeting has warned “the culture of routine overspending without consequences is over”, as he unveiled a new, trimmed-down mandate for the NHS.
Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson arrive
Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair arrived at Lord Prescott’s funeral with his wife, Cherie.
He was followed into the church by Lord Mandelson.
Sir Tony walked into the minster where he stood chatting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as they waited for the service to begin.
Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:59
John Prescott’s obituary | How the ‘Prescott Punch’ came to define him as Labour’s firebrand – and a total necessity for Blair
The charismatic former deputy prime minister, who died at the age of 86, was known best for punching a member of the electorate and acting as a vital bridge for Tony Blair to reach the unions
Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:51
Alastair Campbell recalls ‘big shouting matches’ with Prescott
Labour’s former head of communications, Alastair Campbell has said that Lord Prescott had a combative personality.
“The thing about John is he could be very explosive,” he told BBC Radio Humberside shortly before the funeral service.
“You could have big shouting matches with him and then 10 minutes later, well, maybe not 10 minutes, maybe a couple of hours later you’d be back as friends.”
The former spin doctor said Lord Prescott was “sensitive about the way posh people looked down on him”.
Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:41
Starmer arrives at funeral
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and former prime minister Gordon Brown have arrived at Hull Minster for the funeral of Lord Prescott.
Sir Keir and Mr Brown walked into the building with their wives and began chatting with many of the 300 guests who have assembled in the church to remember the former deputy prime minister, who died in November.
Among the many other Labour Party figures who arrived earlier were Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and former home secretary and Hull MP Alan Johnson.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper arrived in the minster with her husband Ed Balls.

Full report | Wes Streeting takes NHS mandate ‘back to basics’ as health secretary wages war on overspending
My colleagues Rachel Clun and Millie Cooke report:
Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:36
In Pictures | Labour frontbenchers arrive at John Prescott’s funeral

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Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:28
Judge upholds legal challenge against new North Sea oil and gas fields
A judge has upheld a legal challenge by environmental campaigners against the decision to grant consent to two new oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
Greenpeace and Uplift brought the challenge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh over decisions to give approval to the Rosebank oil field north west of Shetland and the Jackdaw gas field off Aberdeen.
They argued the UK Government and North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) had acted unlawfully when granting consent to the projects, as environmental impact assessments did not take into account downstream emissions resulting from the burning of the extracted fuels.
The former Conservative-led UK government approved Shell’s proposals to develop the Jackdaw field in 2022, and cleared Equinor and Ithaca Energy’s plans to drill in the Rosebank field in September 2023.
In a judgement published on Thursday, Lord Ericht said the decision to grant consent was unlawful, and ruled the consent should be “reduced” (quashed) and reconsidered.
He ordered that the reduction be suspended pending the Secretary of State’s re-consideration of the matter, which he said would give the companies “options” on how to proceed in the interim.
However, he said no oil or gas should be extracted before a new decision on consent is made.
Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:28
Ministers begin to arrive at John Prescott’s funeral
More than 300 family members, friends and colleagues have been invited to John Prescott’s service at Hull Minster.
Lord Prescott, who served as deputy prime minister under Sir Tony Blair between 1997 and 2007, died on November 20 last year aged 86 in a nursing home where he had been living with Alzheimer’s.
Hosted by the Rev Canon Dominic Black, the service will include singing from the Choral-Hull children’s choir, made up from pupils across the city.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:16
Full report | Rachel Reeves warns Sadiq Khan she will defeat London mayor’s bid to sabotage Heathrow expansion
Jabed Ahmed30 January 2025 11:09
Analysis | Streeting’s NHS mandate lays bare the limits of government ambition for the health service
Wes Streeting’s 2025 NHS mandate has revealed a stark truth about the government’s ambition for the NHS.
While the health secretary has promised to deliver on the peoples’ priorities, his admission that the health service will go “back to basics” suggests that this may be all they’re delivering on.
Streeting’s warning that the “NHS must learn to live within its means” is hardly an inspiring message for one of Britain’s national treasures – and campaign groups have already pointed out key omissions from today’s mandate, such as a lack of national targets or deadlines for the NHS to implement sexual misconduct policy.
With an increasingly difficult fiscal situation – and an electoral landscape that makes improving satisfaction with the NHS absolutely pivotal to Labour’s success – it seems Streeting is gambling on getting the basics right, rather than making truly ambitious reforms for the health service.
Millie Cooke 30 January 2025 11:01