Former Labour leader Michael Foot has died, aged 96, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced.

Mr Straw told MPs he had been told of Mr Foot's death and went on: "I am sure that this news will be received with great sadness not only in my own party but across the country as a whole."

He added: "He was held in very great affection in all sections of the House and across the country."

Mr Straw told MPs: "Those of us who knew Michael Foot well, have a great many memories of him.

"I simply say that I have one particular memory of Michael Foot - I was a new backbencher sitting on one of the benches over there in November 1980 and there was a run-off competition between Denis Healey and Michael Foot for the leadership of the Labour party."

The Justice Secretary told of how Mr Foot had made a speech which "suggested to me that he had a line into the Almighty".

Mr Straw said: "I witnessed this speech and so did the rest of us with the same incredulity that I witnessed the imagination behind a Mozart concerto. He just held the House, he'd got no notes, just a couple of newspaper cuttings."