Ex-minister: NHS closed ranks over hospital deaths

A former health minister has accused the NHS of closing ranks after the deaths in hospital of elderly patients from alleged overprescribed painkiller drugs.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, who served as a health minister between 2012-15 during the coalition government, said the NHS and elements of Whitehall had refused to face up to "hard and uncomfortable facts".

He was speaking to Newsnight's Nick Watt on the eve of the publication of a report into hundreds of deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.