Tributes have been paid to former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Keighley MP Kris Hopkins said the images of Mr Mandela walking free from prison 23 years ago were “unquestionably the most iconic of our time”. Mr Mandela, South Africa’s first black president and an anti-apartheid icon, died last Thursday, aged 95.

Mr Hopkins said: “His example of leadership, statesmanship, compassion, humanity, bravery and forgiveness has become the model which political leaders across the world have sought to follow, but no one else will surely ever achieve.

“Nelson Mandela was unique and his legacy will live with us forever.”

Fellow MP Philip Davies, whose Shipley constituency includes Cullingworth and Denholme, said: “The way Nelson Mandela unified the people of South Africa following his election as president was what marked him out to me as one of the great statesmen of all time.”

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Keighley Central councillor Khadim Hussain, was among the first to sign a book of condolence at City Hall, Bradford.

He wrote: “There are no words to describe this man’s achievement to the world of equality. The world has lost an inspirational leader.”