Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

The hot seat was bursting with political heavyweights as Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg returned for the first time since the summer recess.

Let's take a look at the key takeaways from the programme:

• First up in the red chair, Defence Secretary John Healey told viewers that Keir Starmer is "going up a gear" with his cabinet reshuffle after Angela Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister

• Healey adds Starmer is "resetting his team" and has told his cabinet, "you've got to deliver"
• Meanwhile, Reform's Nigel Farage shifted on a pledge to end small boats within two weeks and was pressed to condemn remarks heard at asylum hotel protests
• Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was "extraordinary" that some Conservative politicians had defected to Reform UK, adding Farage "doesn't have a plan"
• US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described the UK's plans to recognise a Palestinian state as "disastrous"

We are closing our live coverage of this week's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg - join us again next week.

Earlier on the programme, Kuenssberg quizzed the US's ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on the UK's plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

As a reminder, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.

Australia, France, Japan and Canada have all made similar announcements in support of recognising a Palestinian state.

Huckabee says the move is "disastrous" and says it is in violation of the Oslo Accords.

"I wish they'd have though about the implications. Hamas walked away from the negotiations to let the hostages go," he says.

And that's a wrap on today's show.

Summer recess is officially over - and as Laura Kuenssberg says it will be a busy period ahead for UK politics, from political party conferences to the newly reshuffled cabinet.

Just before the show ended, we heard from the US's ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee - we'll bring you some key comments from him in just a moment.

Badenoch is pressed further by Kuenssberg about defections from her party to Reform UK.

It comes after former Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who defected to Reform, was quoted on the Daily Mail saying that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage "must unite to crush Labour". If it could make people's lives better, Dorries says, "both men would find a way to accommodate each other's egos".

In response to speculations that more Tory MPs might follow suit and join Reform, Badenoch says it's "very interesting" that Farage spent "all his time criticising Conservatives" but now says he would like Tories to join his party "because he couldn't do anything without them".

Badenoch says it will take time for the Conservative party to rebuild, and they have to show the electorate that they've learnt from their mistakes in four years time.

"We have to show that we're above board and ready," she adds.

Badenoch is pushed on whether she's certain that Reform is a "protest" party.

The Tory leader says Farage is making the same mistake Labour did: making assurances that things will improve if the party in power is removed, instead of developing policy of his own.

Badenoch is then asked whether the Tories will announce plans to leave the European Convention on Human Rights at their party conference later this month.

Badenoch declines to respond, but says that she has always maintained the Conservatives would be prepared to do so if it resolved border issues.

Instead, the Tory leader says the Conservatives had a plan for deterrence - the Rwanda scheme - but Keir Starmer scrapped it.

The scheme only saw four volunteers leave the UK and Kuenssberg presses Badenoch on its viability, but the leader of the opposition insists it is workable.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is in the hot seat now.

Kuenssberg asks Badenoch about Tory MP's leaving the party for Reform.

It's "extraordinary" that they are leaving when the country is facing an economic crisis, because Farage will only make it worse as he wants to increase benefits, Badenoch says.

"We are the only party talking about living within our means," Badenoch says.

She says her goal is to turn the Tories back into the "traditional" party that people recognise. She adds that there will be "tough decisions" but if people don't like it "they are welcome to leave".

Badenoch touches on the historic defeat her party suffered in last year's general election, and adds that it will take time to regain the public's trust. Oppositions take time to comeback after a defeat, she says.

She adds that populist parties are doing well because the government is in "freefall".

"My job is to show the Conservative party has changed," she says.

Next, Farage is asked about evidence of distressing language and activity during anti-immigration protests.

Kuenssberg shares that in north London people were heard saying "get these scum off our streets", and in Falkirk, Scotland, there was evidence of people saying "keep Britain white". She asks Farage if he will condemn those remarks.

Farage does not answer directly, and instead says that "it is very, very easy, isn't it, to take a few extremists and to take what they say." He says the protests started because the local community in Epping were "quite rightly" protesting that a 14-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker.

On 4 September, the man whose arrest led to protests outside a hotel in Epping was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman.

In the Reform UK leader's view, there are "too many undocumented young males" who come to the UK from cultures where "women are not even second-class citizens".

Pressed further, Farage says he does not welcome extremist comments "from either side".

One of the pledges Nigel Farage made on Friday at Reform UK's conference was that he would stop small boat arrivals within two weeks of entering government.

It was one of the standout announcements of his keynote speech in Birmingham.

"We will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country," he told the audience. "We will stop the boats within two weeks of winning government."

But speaking to Kuenssberg, he shifts on that promise.

Instead, Farage says he would stop the boats within two weeks by passing laws he says would allow him to deport migrants quickly.

Kuenssberg asks if those laws could take months to pass, to which Farage says a government led by him would "want to do it as quickly as we possibly can".

Last month Reform UK suggested it would deport 600,000 migrants over five years if it won power at the next general election.

Image source, PA Media

Reform party leader Nigel Farage has told Laura Kuenssberg that Keir Starmer's government is not qualified for office as the PM shuffles his cabinet.

Speaking to her on the sidelines of the Reform party conference in Birmingham, Farage says: "Shuffling the cabinet around, so what?"

"They're not qualified for office," he adds. "Where are the life experiences of this cabinet? Where are the business brains of this cabinet?"

He says the "real problem" for Starmer will be the election of deputy leader after Angela Rayner's resignation.

"This is where we're going to see the strong voice for the left against the more moderate Starmer wing," he adds. "So I think Labour have got very big problems as a result of yesterday."

Pushed on the fact that Reform has already lost two of its own MPs to scandals, the party's leader responds: "You can get away with it as a new emerging party, because naturally there's going to be a filtering out process."

Kuenssberg is now speaking to Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who says the political culture in the UK is "troubling" following Angela Rayner's resignation and the cabinet reshuffle.

He says she has been treated poorly by the government and expresses concern that the new cabinet doesn't have a good "balance".

Burnham says there should be contest for deputy leadership of the Labour party and it should be used to discuss the internal issues.

He says that Labour MPs shouldn't lose the whip for opposing two child benefits.

Kuenssberg poses to Healey whether he thinks the Labour leadership has been too "controlling" - but the defence minister disputes that.

He adds that the government will miss Rayner, but they will continue on to serve the public.

Pressed on whether the Labour government has been listening enough, a point raised by senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry, Healey says the “most important thing for any government is to listen to the voters”.

Healey says he is proud that his government has given a boost to low-paid workers, and proud that as defence secretary he has given the armed forces the largest pay increase for 20 years.

The defence secretary says the reshuffle represents Keir Starmer "going up a gear" after a year of "sorting out the mess" he says was left behind by the previous Tory government.

Defence Secretary John Healey is the first guest in the red chair this morning.

He's first asked about Angela Rayner's resignation - alongside four other ministers' resigning since Labour took office - which he calls "part and parcel of government".

In fact, he says that Labour's reliance on an independent ethics adviser in the case of investigating Rayner's tax affairs is a contrast to the previous Conservative government.

We're shown a YouGov graphic that suggests 70% of the public disapprove of Labour's work so far, and Healey responds that Starmer is rebuilding government.

It's time to take your seats, as the first Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg since the summer recess begins.

As a reminder, you can follow the programme by clicking watch live at the top of this page, or follow here for text updates.

Image source, PA Media

Coming up on today’s show, Kuenssberg’s guests will include:

• John Healey, defence secretary
• Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader
• Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader
• Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel

Meanwhile, today's panel will be made up of:

• Michael Gove, Spectator editor and former Conservative minister
• Brian Cox, Scottish actor of Succession
• Emily Thornberry, Labour MP

Stick with us as we bring you all the news and reaction live from the show.

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Image source, Leon Neal/ Reuters

In the end, Angela Rayner's decision to go was clear cut.

The official report into her behaviour said she'd tried to do the right thing, but not tried hard enough. So the rules had been broken.

Her camp reckoned she had no option. No 10 agreed.

There is frustration that the manner of her exit from government gave her critics what they wanted. But she knew she had no choice, and was devastated by her own mistake.

It's acutely and specifically painful for Labour because Rayner had personally styled herself as something of a sleaze-buster.

She portrayed herself as a loud and proud champion of ordinary people looking at the worst Westminster behaviour in disgust.

For Labour in general, it undermines again, their claim to be different to those who went before, to return government to the "service of the people", as Starmer said so many times – to be competent, with clean heels.

Twelve months on, Rayner is the fifth minister who has quit after their actions caused embarrassment for the government. Those clean heels look a bit scruffy now.

The mess is, of course, a gift for Nigel Farage. At his party's conference in Birmingham on Friday Rayner's exit didn't just shove him on stage a few hours early for his speech to try to grab a space in the news cycle, it gave more ammunition to his fundamental argument.

Reform's pitch rests on a claim that the two big parties are as bad as each other, and preside over a system that is bust.

• Read more of Kuenssberg's analysis

Image source, Reuters

The scrutiny that had been building over Angela Rayner’s tax affairs came to a head this week, with the former deputy prime minister admitting on Wednesday that she had underpaid stamp duty when buying an £800,000 flat in Hove.

While Keir Starmer had stood by Rayner earlier in the week, on Thursday he refused to say if he would sack her if she was found to have broken the ministerial code.

By lunchtime on Friday, the findings of an ethics report had been published. The PM's ethics adviser found that, although Rayner had “acted with integrity”, the ministerial code had been breached.

In her resignation letter to the prime minister, Rayner said she did not intend to pay the wrong amount of stamp duty but took “full responsibility” for the error.

The resignation prompted the PM to carry out a major reshuffle of his top team.

Among the main changes were David Lammy’s appointment as deputy prime minister, Yvette Cooper as foreign secretary, and Shabana Mahmood as home secretary.

Others, like Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Defence Secretary John Healey and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, remain in their roles.

Welcome back to the first Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg after the return of Parliament from summer recess.

It’s a big programme today as Defence Secretary John Healey will be quizzed after a consequential week in politics that saw a major cabinet reshuffle and the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's deputy, Angela Rayner.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will also be in the hot seat, as well as Reform UK's Nigel Farage - fresh off the back of his party conference.

As always, you can stream the show live at the top of this page by pressing watch live at 09:00.

We’ll also be covering the main points from all today’s guests right here - stick with us.