Former United States Vice President Dick Cheney has died aged 84.

The passing of the Republican politician, who was deputy to President George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, was announced in a statement released by his family on Tuesday.

“His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,” the statement said, adding that he died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.

“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” the family said.

Cheney was a highly divisive political figure for many in the US and around the globe, having pushed the boundaries of the vice presidency to lead the Bush administration’s “so-called “war on terror”” and its misdirected invasion of Iraq.

More to come…