Watch: Speaker leads procession of MPs as parliament marks VE Day 80

Parliament was suspended on Thursday as the House of Commons speaker led MPs and peers on a procession to Westminster Abbey, a ritual to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

The procession served as a re-enactment of the historic walk MPs did from parliament on VE Day in 1945, after it was announced that fighting in Europe had come to an end.

Rising in the commons chamber, the prime minister requested that the speaker suspend the sitting of the House so that parliamentarians could attend a service in Westminster Abbey.

Keir Starmer said: “Mr Speaker, can I ask that you now suspend the sitting so we may attend at Westminster Abbey to give thanks and to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the greatest victory in the history of our great nation?”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle responded: “We will now follow in the footsteps of our predecessors 80 years ago.

“On 8 May 1945, honourable members formed a procession out of the House of Lords, where they secretly relocated because the House of Commons chamber had been destroyed during the Blitz.

“Today, we shall again follow the mace, but this time from our own chamber – through the bomb-scarred Churchill Arch, which stands as a permanent reminder of the fortitude of those who stood firm through the war.”

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