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King Charles III will be "his own person" as monarch, according to his friend Sir Nicholas Soames.

The former Conservative MP and grandson of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Radio 4's The World At One: "Each sovereign is their own person, and he will be his own person.

"But he's served a very long apprenticeship at the feet of an absolute master."

Soames says "the Queen never put a foot wrong in 70 years", adding there is much "he will have learned from her reign".

He says he has not yet spoken to the new monarch, but says King Charles III "has backbone and he's going to need it".

Soames adds: "You will find that the whole thing goes like clockwork, it will all have been planned for a very long time."

Nicholas Witchell
BBC royal correspondent

It's a symbolic moment - the King returning to the capital city and to his palace - the headquarters of the British monarchy.

It's known the King has never been terribly keen to base himself at Buckingham Palace, but I suspect that he will just have to reconcile himself to that - and move himself from Clarence House, in just the same way the Queen and Prince Philip did, rather against their wishes [at the time].

Clarence House was their home, back in 1952, when the Queen Mother was in residence at Buckingham Palace, but the then-Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, made it clear the monarch resides at Buckingham Palace.

So I would imagine that the same thing will happen this time - and, in due course, the King and the Queen Consort will move from Clarence House... into "the big house", as it were.

All of these things will have to be worked out, as he steps up and is now King.

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The King's car has pulled up just outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and he and Queen Camilla have stepped out to greet people who have gathered outside.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have arrived at Buckingham Palace, where he is due to meet Prime Minister Liz Truss.

The King's plane landed at RAF Northolt in west London just after 13:30 BST.

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The new King is expected at Buckingham Palace shortly.

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Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

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France may be a proud Republic, but the French have a royalist streak. I have not met a single one who did not express fascination, admiration and regard for Queen Elizabeth.

The feeling was reciprocated. The Queen loved coming to France. She made five state visits in her long reign, as well as several other trips on important occasions like the anniversaries of D-Day.

She also came on unofficial business – for example to see the châteaux of the Loire and the Normandy horse-studs in 1967.

She spoke excellent French, and behaved each time exactly as the half-envious French expected a British monarch to behave.

Cross-channel relations had their ups and downs – as they still do. But the Queen was always there to represent what was permanent and best in the entente cordiale – the mutual fondness, the mutual respect, the memory of shared struggles, and the good-humoured rivalry.

Earlier this afternoon French president Emmanuel Macron visited the British Embassy in Paris to sign a book of condolence in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II.

He wrote in French: “Here, in Paris, which she loved so much, as everywhere in France, the grief of our compatriots is immense.

"For 70 years, Elizabeth II was a Queen of courage and valour, a friend of France.

"We are by your side. My friendship and support, Emmanuel Macron.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla have arrived in London - having flown from Aberdeen to RAF Northolt in the west of the capital.

They are now making their way to Buckingham Palace with the assistance of a motorcade which is whisking them the 20-or-so miles into the heart of the city.

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Image source, Getty Images / John Stillwell

Charles will be officially proclaimed as King at a meeting of the Accession Council, attended by his son Prince William, on Saturday.

For the first time ever, the event will be shown on TV.

The council, due to take place from 10am, is also attended by invited Privy Councillors, serving government ministers, and could also include former ministers and prime ministers.

The King will attend the second part of the meeting to make a declaration and sign an oath to uphold the security of the Church of Scotland and the continuity of government.

In a sign of how historic institutions modernised during Queen Elizabeth II's reign, the Privy Council website has advised councillors to check their emails for an invitation to the Accession Council meeting.

Following the meeting, the Principal Proclamation announcing Charles as sovereign will be read at 11am from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James's Palace, central London.

The proclamation will be read an hour later at the Royal Exchange in the City of London, and then at midday on Sunday in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla have landed in London.

They had stayed overnight in Balmoral Castle, where the Queen passed away on Thursday.

The 73-year-old will meet the prime minister ahead of his first address to the nation at 18:00 BST.

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Gun salutes to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II have taken place around the UK - at Cardiff Castle, Edinburgh Castle and at Hillsborough Castle in County Down.

There were also salutes in Gibraltar and Jersey, and at the Tower of London and Hyde Park in the capital.

Image source, House of Commons

Back to the House of Commons, where MPs from all parties are in the chamber to pay tribute to the late Queen.

Harriet Harman praises Boris Johnson for his speech which she says "resonated" around the country.

The Mother of the House of Commons begins by saying the Queen "underpinned our democratic system for over 70 years and never intervened".

"She avoided controversy, she adds, and "performed her role to the utmost and respected the boundaries".

Harman recalled her brief stint in office as secretary of state for social security when she was "sacked" after a year in the role.

She said the Queen called her for tea to thank her for her service.

"The relationship was always active and encouraging.

"While she embodied British values - she never intervened in politics."

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, royal correspondent

Archie and Lilibet, the children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are now entitled to be called prince and princess.

They can receive those titles as the children of the new monarch’s son.

A lack of royal titles was raised as an issue of contention in Prince Harry and Meghan’s TV interview with Oprah Winfrey.

But the two children can now be a prince and princess, although there is no confirmation about whether the titles will be used.

There are other changes to titles. Prince William and Kate are now the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge, with the heir not automatically becoming the Prince of Wales.

Naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough - a contemporary of the Queen - has paid tribute to Her Majesty on the BBC.

He tells us: "The Queen had an extraordinary ability to put you at your ease.

"If there was a technical hitch she wanted to know what it was and, if it had a funny side, she was quick to see the joke.

"Yet, not for one second could you forget that you were in the presence of someone who had willingly accepted enormous responsibilities and dedicated her life to serving the nation.

"That you were, in short, in the presence of royalty.

"The whole nation is bereaved."

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We have already heard the bells toll at midday in churches across the country, as well as at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle - to mark the passing of the Queen and proclaim the new KIng.

Currently, members of the House of Commons, including Prime Minister Liz Truss and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer are paying their own tributes to Queen Elizabeth II.

So what else can we expect this afternoon:

• Right now, gun salutes of 96 rounds to mark each year of her life are being fired in Hyde Park and elsewhere in the UK and abroad
• Later this afternoon, having returned to London, King Charles III will hold an audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss
• At 6pm, a remembrance service will be held at St Paul's Cathedral in London, attended by the prime minister and other senior ministers.
• Also at 6pm, the King is expected to make his first televised address to the nation as head of state

Gun salutes are being fired around the UK and abroad. The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery will fire 96 rounds - one for each year of the Queen's life - at Hyde Park. Rounds are being fired at 10-second intervals.

Ceremonial salutes are also being fired at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company, as well as at castles around the UK nations - Edinburgh Castle, Hillsborough Castle and Cardiff Castle - and in Gibraltar and at sea.

The Bank of England will delay its next interest rate meeting by one week due to the period of mourning following the Queen's death.

The Monetary Policy Committee was going to meet next week, but the decision on interest rates will now be announced on 22 September.

"In light of the period of national mourning being observed in the United Kingdom, the September 2022 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been postponed for a period of one week," it says.

The flight carrying King Charles III is heading to London from Aberdeen and is being tracked by more than 100,000 people on Flightradar.com.

On his return to the capital this afternoon, the 73-year old monarch will meet Prime Minister Liz Truss before giving his first televised address to the nation at 18:00 BST.

Image source, Reuters

Boris Johnson says in their final meeting at Balmoral two days before her death, that the Queen was “as radiant, knowledgeable and fascinated by politics as I can remember and as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser".

"That impulse to do her duty carried her right through to her tenth decade to the very moment in Balmoral, only three days, ago when she saw off her 14th prime minister and welcomed her 15th.

"With her attentive and enquiring mind she became the greatest statesman and diplomat of all."

Johnson says that unlike politicians with armour-plated convoys, he recalls being witness to the Queen driving herself in her own car, with no security, "bouncing at alarming speed over the Scottish landscape to the total amazement of the ramblers and tourists we encountered".

"It was with that indomitable spirit she created the modern constitutional monarchy.

"She would regard it as her own highest achievement that her son, Charles III, will follow her own extraordinary standards of duty and service."

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson begins his tribute to the Queen by saying: "Millions of us are trying to understand why we are feeling this deep and personal and almost form familial sense of loss.

"Perhaps it's partly that she's always been there, a changeless human reference point in British life.

"We are coming to understand in her death the full magnitude of what she did for us all.

"Think of what we asked that 25-year-old woman all those years ago - to be the person so globally trusted that her image should be on every unit of our currency, every postage stamp, the person in whose name all justice is dispensed in this country, every law passed, to whom every minister of the crown swears allegiance and for whom every member of our armed services is pledged if necessary to lay down their lives.

"Think of what we asked of her in that moment. Not just to be the living embodiment in her DNA in the history and continuity and unity of this country but to the figurehead of our entire system, the keystone in the vast arch of the British state, a role that only she could fulfil."