Family members have joined some of Britain’s biggest stars to pay their respects to Liam Payne in an emotional private service after his tragic death at the age of just 31. Harry Styles, 30, joined fellow members of One Direction to celebrate the life of their beloved former bandmate, having described feeling ‘completely devastated’ after he fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina last month. Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, 43, were among the first to arrive as they rallied around their fellow Girls Aloud member Cheryl, who is the mother of Payne’s seven-year-old son, Bear. They were followed shortly after by Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, 25, who was comforted by her friend Damian Hurley, 22.

Public services productivity has fallen again and is still 8.5 per cent below pre-Covid levels as Labour prepares to pour in more resources. Grim official figures showed that state sector output relative to input went down 1.2 per cent in the three months to June, compared to the previous quarter. The ONS has also revised down data for productivity in 2022, suggesting improvement in the aftermath of the pandemic nosedive was less than half as fast as thought.