Infected blood report latest: Sunak apologises, campaigners speak out - the day as it happened

That brings our coverage on this live page to an end.

We've just heard from Rishi Sunak, who issued an "unequivocal apology" to victims of the infected blood scandal on what he called a "day of shame" for Britain.

We'll have more political reaction on Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge at 7pm - you can watch the show by pressing play above, or head to the Politics Hub to follow live.

Dame Diana Johnson, the Labour MP, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee and ardent campaigner for justice for those affected by the infected blood scandal, will be speaking to Sophy.

Then a special programme on the scandal with Sarah-Jane Mee airs from 8pm to 9pm. 

Before you switch over, here is a recap of today's key moments:

• Infected blood was a result of "downright deception" by the NHS and government, including the destruction of documents, an inquiry found;
  
• Clinicians failed to tell patients about the risk of infection, alternative treatments, that they were being tested for HIV or Hepatitis C, or that they had tested positive, the report said;
• Anyone who had blood transfusions before 1996 should be offered a Hepatitis C test, it recommended;
• The chair of the inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, said successive government claims about infected blood were untrue, and criticised the civil service for "institutional defensiveness".
• He said he expects a meaningful government apology and a compensation scheme to be set up;
• Blood services and doctors knew better, yet failed to put patient safety first and the resulting harm cannot be put into words, he said;
• Campaigners said they have been gas-lit for decades and wasted years of their lives trying to persuade governments to launch an inquiry before 2017.

After the apology from the prime minister on behalf of the British state for the infected blood scandal, we heard from our political editor Beth Rigby.

She said this was "clearly not a moment to play politics at all".

The Labour leader, she noted, was "looking up frequently to the gallery where many victims and families of victims were watching, and told them that politics itself had failed them".

Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged that "this was a failure of successive governments - it was only in 2017, after decades of campaigning, that then PM Theresa May ordered an inquiry".

In terms of next steps, Beth said both leaders acknowledged compensation must now be paid, with the PM saying it "must be comprehensive", and the Labour leader offering his full support to get it done quickly.

"It was some moment there," Beth said, "going some way today, I think, to publicly apologise on both sides of the House and say that compensation will now be delivered after all these years."

She went on: "I think the thing about this scandal is the way in which it cuts across decades, the way in which it cuts across different institutions of the state."

It was a "systemic failure on so many different levels", and "I think it is perhaps one of the biggest scandals and failures of the British state in modern times".

Beth also picked up a comment from the Labour leader, who said victims are too often not believed.

"The bigger question from all of this, perhaps as the dust settles, is how to do build in safeguards to stop that happening?"

Responding after Sir Keir's statement, Rishi Sunak thanks him for his "collegiate tone".

"He is right it is irrefutably clear that an unconscionable injustice has been done - the result of a consistent and systemic failure by the state time and again," Mr Sunak says.

"It's why I apologise wholeheartedly to every person impacted by this scandal."

He says "it is right we now act" on behalf of the victims and families of those affected "who expected us to put right this historic wrong".

This is a rare moment of unity between the prime minister and Sir Keir.

The Labour leader is on his feet addressing the MPs after the prime minister apologised on behalf of the British state for the infected blood scandal.

Sir Keir Starmer says this is "an injustice that has spanned across governments on an unprecedented scale".

"As well as paying tribute to the courage and determination of the victims, the infected and the affected - some of whom are here in the gallery today - I want to acknowledge to every single person who has suffered, that in addition to all the other failings, politics itself failed you.

"That failure applies to all parties, including my own," he says.

"There is only one word: sorry."

'Failure across the board'

The suffering, Sir Keir says, was "caused by wrongdoing, delay, and systemic failure across the board", which was "compounded by institutional defensiveness".

The Labour leader says the apology from the PM today "must be accompanied by action", and welcomes his confirmation that compensation will be paid.

"He should be under no doubt whatsoever that we will work with him to get that done swiftly," Sir Keir says.

The Labour leader commits that his party will "shine a harsh light upon the lessons that must be learnt to make sure nothing like this ever happens again".

He says victims have had difficulty accepting the "betrayal" of trust by "people and institutions that were meant to protect them".

And "the truth", he adds, "was hidden from them for decades".

But Sir Keir notes this scandal is "not unique", and "the institutional defensiveness is a pattern of behaviour we must address".

Addressing the compensation scheme the government is expected to line out tomorrow, Rishi Sunak says "whatever it costs to deliver the scheme, we will pay it".

He says it is "not enough to say sorry" and the government will pay "long overdue compensation".

Details will be set out in the Commons tomorrow.

But "there can be no moving on from a report that is so devastating in its criticisms", he says.

He says no one is questioning the NHS provides amazing and lifesaving care to the British people, but Sir Brian Langstaff, the inquiry chair, and his team have made wide-ranging recommendations for improvement.

"We will study them in detail before returning to this House with a full response," he adds.

Speaking directly to the victims of the infected blood scandal and their families, Rishi Sunak says: "I want to make wholehearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice."

He apologises on a number of bases: first, he apologises for the failure of blood policy, and the "devastating and so often fatal impact this had on so many lives" and the "mismanagement of the response to the emergence of AIDS and hepatitis viruses amongst infected blood victims".

Second, he apologises for the "repeated failure of the state and our medical professionals to recognise the harm caused".

Third, the prime minister apologises for "the institutional failure to face up to these failings, and worse, to deny, and even attempt to cover them up".

He also apologised for the "appalling length of time it took to secure the public inquiry".

"This is an apology from the state to every single person impacted by this scandal."

Rishi Sunak opens his statement by saying: "This is a day of shame for the British state.

"Today's report shows a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life, from the National Health Service to the Civil Service, to ministers in successive governments, at every level that people and institutions in which we place our trust failed in the most harrowing and devastating way."

The prime minister said those people "failed this country", and the "calamity" should "shake our nation to its core".

He said it was "known that these treatments were contaminated", and warnings were "ignored repeatedly".

"Time and again, people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections.

"Time and again, they failed to do so."

'Victims had to fight for justice'

Mr Sunak says "victims and their loved ones have had to fight for justice".

"Fight to be heard and believed."

He says more than 3,000 people died without that truth and died without an apology.

"They died without seeing anyone held to account," he adds.

Rishi Sunak is on his feet in the House of Commons making a statement about the infected blood scandal.

It comes after a public inquiry published its long-awaited report today, which was damning of the NHS and successive governments.

Mr Sunak is expected to apologise on behalf of the government ahead of the plan for compensating victims being outlined tomorrow.

Watch the statement live on Sky News, in the stream above, and follow live updates here.

This is a "momentous moment", our political editor Beth Rigby says of the prime minister's imminent statement.

She says the report into the infected blood scandal underlines "decades of failure and cover-ups".

"What it clearly says in the report is that successive governments let down victims and their families," she says.

Decades on, "finally a prime minister will stand up in the Commons and issue an apology".

As we wait for Rishi Sunak's response to the infected blood report, here's a reminder of something the inquiry's chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, said earlier as he delivered his findings.

His report, he said, details how three lines on the scandal were repeatedly deployed by successive governments - and "all of those claims were untrue".

Watch that moment below...