2.20pm BST

David Cameron Photograph: BBC Parliament

• David Cameron has said that he is“profoundly sorry” for the failures that caused the Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent attempts to shift blame for the tragedy on to supporters. In a moving and dignified statement in the Commons, which was compared to his widely-praised Bloody Sunday apology, he said that as prime minister he had to accept that relatives of the Hillsborough victims had been let down by the state. He was speaking after receiving a report from the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

The new evidence that we are presented with today makes clear that these families have suffered a double injustice. The injustice of the appalling events - the failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth. And the injustice of the denigration of the deceased – that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths. On behalf of the Government – and indeed our country – I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.

Cameron said the report showed that the notorious Sun front page saying that fans were drunk and violent was false.

News International has co-operated with the Panel and, for the first time, today’s report reveals that the source for these despicable untruths was a Sheffield news agency reporting conversations with South Yorkshire Police and Irvine Patnick, the then MP for Sheffield Hallam. The Report finds that this was part of police efforts – and I quote - “to develop and publicise a version of events that focused on…allegations of drunkenness, ticketlessness and violence.

The government at the time was not to blame for the cover up, he said. But it did not do enough to challenge the lies that were told.

At the time of the Taylor Report the then Prime Minister [Margaret Thatcher] was briefed by her private secretary that the defensive and – I quote - “close to deceitful” behaviour of senior South Yorkshire officers was “depressingly familiar.” And it is clear that the then government thought it right that the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire should resign. But as the Rt Hon Member for Leigh has rightly highlighted, governments then and since have simply not done enough to challenge publicly the unjust and untrue narrative that sought to blame the fans.

Cameron said that there would be a debate in parliament on the report and that the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, would urgently consider whether to apply to the high court for a fresh inquest. There is more coverage on our Hillsborough live blog.

• Michael Gove has said that Welsh exam qualifications will not be seen as as good as English ones following the decision of the Welsh government to order GCSEs to be regraded. He made the comments giving evidence to a select committee. Leighton Andrews, the Labour education minister in the Welsh government, hit back , accusing Gove of “political game playing”.

• Cameron has refused to say that the government will meet its promise to get the national debt falling by the end of this parliament. Following a report in today’s Guardian, Ed Miliband raised the issue at PMQs. “We gather today that the government may miss the overriding economic test he set himself, which is that debt will be falling by the time of the next election,” Miliband said. “Isn’t the fact that he is failing the very test that he set himself the surest sign yet that his plan is not working?” As the Press Association reports, Cameron replied: “This government in the last two years has cut the deficit by a quarter.” Challenged again to confirm he was “sticking to that promise” despite rises in borrowing, the prime minister said: “It is this government that has cut the deficit that we inherited by a quarter.”

• Cameron has ruled out an inquiry into claims that Greg Barker, the climate change minister, has had inappropriate links with an adviser.

• The Olympics has been credited with contributing to a fall in unemployment. As the Press Association reports, the jobless total fell by 7,000 in the quarter to July to 2.59 million, an unemployment rate of 8.1%. The Office for National Statistics said the number claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance last month was 1.57 million, down by 15,000 on July – the largest monthly fall since June 2010.

• José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, has said that an independent Scotland would have to reapply to join the European Union. This is what he told the World at One.

What I can tell you is that to join the European Union, yes we have a procedure of international law. A state has to be a democracy first of all, and the state has to apply to become a member of the European Union, and all the other member states have to give their consent. A new state, if it wants to join the European Union, has to apply to be a member of the European Union. Any state, and in fact I see no countries leaving, and I see many countries wanting to join.

• Unions today called for an independent commission into the state pension age amid anger over plans to make people work until they are 68 before receiving their retirement money. As the Press Association reports, delegates at the TUC conference spoke out against the idea that working longer is inevitable, warning that many employees would not physically be able to last that long in their job.

• The Foreign Office has not denied a report that the head of MI6 has paid a secret visit to Israel to urge prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to take military action against Iran’s nuclear programme. As the Press Association reports, the Daily Mail says that Sir John Sawers visited Israel a couple of weeks ago with a message from David Cameron that Mr Netanyahu should allow more time for diplomatic efforts. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We don’t talk about intelligence matters or about Sir John Sawers’s movements. Israel is an important partner of ours and we do speak to them all the time about a wide range of issues, obviously including Iran. We make our views very clear. On Iran, we believe that diplomacy should be given time to work.”

• Salma Yaqoob has quit as leader of the Respect party following what she said had been an extremely difficult few weeks and a breakdown in "relations of trust and collaborative working".