Laura now asks whether Starmer would suspend or kick out an MP that votes against him when winter fuel payments are debated in the Commons next week.

"I think it’s very important for Parliament to speak on this," he says.

"But every Labour MP was elected in on the same mandate as I was, which is to deliver the change that we need for the country over the time we’ve got in office.

"I’m absolutely convinced we will only deliver that change, I’m absolutely determined we will, if we do the difficult things now."

Are you willing to be unpopular, Laura asks.

"We’re going to have to be unpopular. Tough decisions are tough decisions," he tells her.

We've just been hearing Starmer defend his government's decision to axe the winter fuel payment for the majority of pensioners.

Introduced in 1997 for those over state pension age, it is intended to help with higher energy bills that come with keeping a home warm during the winter.

Payments range between £100 and £300, depending on the age of the recipient and whether they live alone. More than 11.3 million pensioners received it for the 2022-23 winter.

In July, the government changed the eligibility criteria, meaning those not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive it.

It means around 10 million pensioners in England and Wales who would previously have been eligible will not receive the payment for this winter.

The devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have since announced they would follow suit and introduce means testing.

Image source, Jeff Overs / BBC

Sticking with the winter fuel allowance, Starmer argues it is now "targeted" and those "most in need" and on pension credit will continue to get the payment.

He says: "We want to get as many people onto pension credit as we can and we want to align housing benefit with pension credit", which he claims will improve the situation".

The PM says by "fixing the foundations" and ensuring economical stability, the government can "absolutely commit" to the state pension triple lock - a system that determines how much the state pension increases each year.

He adds that means the increase in the state pension will "outstrip any loss for pensioners of the winter fuel payment".

Is there a £22bn black hole in the public finances?published at 09:19 British Summer Time 8 September

09:19 BST 8 September

We just heard Starmer say there is a "£22bn black hole" in the public finances.

The figure comes from a document published by the Treasury at the end of July , externalwhich laid out the unexpected spending that would be needed this year. Labour says the previous Conservative government had not been open about the full state of the public finances.

We know there is some truth to that: the Office for Budget Responsibility, which is meant to keep an eye on government finances, said it had not been made aware of the extent of those extra costs., external

Paul Johnson, the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, said that it wouldn’t have been clear to Labour that money had not been set aside for a number of the previous government’s new initiatives.

But the IFS also said some of the spending pressures should have been anticipated and that it was obvious before the election that tax rises would be needed to maintain public services, external.

Read more in BBC Verify's full investigation into the £22bn budget "black hole".

Image source, Jeff Overs/ BBC

Laura turns to Starmer's decision to scrap winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.

The PM says his party needs to "fix the fundamentals" and stabilise the economy, which he says requires "tough decisions" because they've inherited a "£22bn black hole" from the last government.

Laura puts it to him that around £9bn of that comes from decisions his government has made to give above-inflation pay rises to public sector workers.

Starmer claims the Conservatives set up the pay review mechanism for the year, but did not allocate additional money for the outcome.

Laura presses Starmer again to put a date on the completion of remediation work for unsafe buildings.

"I’m not going to give a false promise," he says, adding that work is underway to identify which blocks "need work" and "how we accelerate it".

"The money has been allocated. A lot of this now is identifying and pushing those who are really responsible to do this to do the work that they are required to do," the PM adds.

Asked whether he would like to see people in jail because of the Grenfell Tower fire, he says he doesn't want to say "anything which would prejudice the outcome of any proceedings, including criminal proceedings".

Just before 01:00 BST on 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in the kitchen of a fourth floor flat in the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, west London.

Within minutes, it had spread to cladding that had been added to the 23-storey building’s exterior in a recent renovation.

By 03:00, it had engulfed all four sides of the block. Most of the upper floors were well alight.

In total, the fire killed 72 people and destroyed 151 homes in the tower and surrounding areas.

In its wake, questions were raised about whether the cladding had contributed to the fire’s spread and whether sufficient safety measures had been in place.

On Wednesday, the final report of the six-year public inquiry into what happened was published. The report said:

• Successive governments "ignored, delayed or disregarded" concerns about the safety of industry practices
• Manufacturers of cladding and insulation products "deliberately concealed" the fire risks they posed
• The way building safety is managed in England and Wales is "seriously defective" and "complex and fragmented"

Read more: Key findings from the Grenfell inquiry report

Laura moves now to the final report published by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry this week – she puts it to him that many still live in unsafe buildings more than seven years on from the fire, and asks when that will be remedied.

He says the government will "accelerate the programme" to address that, adding that he is "frustrated" dealing with unsafe cladding is "going as slowly as it is".

A lot of the delay is coming from the process of identifying responsibility and holding people to account for fixing it, he says.

The money and intention is there, but "we need to move more quickly", the PM adds.

Laura pushes him – when will people whose blocks are unsafe be able to sleep easy in their beds?

He reiterates that he wants this done "as quickly as possible", but says he cannot give an end date.

Are leaders in the UK too complacent about the rise of the far right, Laura asks Starmer.

"I am worried about the rise of the far right," he tells her, adding that it's the "sort of snake oil of the easy answer".

The PM says he's "convinced" the answer is delivery in government, which he goes on to say includes improving people's living standards, ensuring public services like the NHS function, and addressing immigration and crime.

Were the rioters racist, Starmer is asked. He says he thinks it was "far right, I think there was racism there, I think it featured differently across the country".

He describes the riots as "totally illegitimate" and unacceptable, saying he accepts people have strong views on issues like immigration, but adds he is "not prepared to tolerate that sort of disorder" and that he would not change policy in response to it.

Laura asks if he thinks the UK is a racist country.

"I don't think we're a racist country, I think we're a country of decent people," he says, adding that the people who came out afterwards to clear up and rebuild were "the real face of Britain".

Image source, Reuters

In July, three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event in Southport. Eight more children and two adults were injured.

Later that day, police said they had arrested a 17-year-old from a village nearby and that they were not treating the incident as terror-related.

Almost immediately after the attack, social media posts falsely speculated that the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a boat in 2023, with an incorrect name being widely circulated. There were also unfounded rumours that he was Muslim.

In fact, as the BBC and other media outlets reported, the suspect was born in Wales to Rwandan parents.

Police urged the public not to spread "unconfirmed speculation and false information".

The following evening, more than a thousand people attended a vigil for the victims in Southport. Later on, violence broke out near a local mosque. People threw bricks, bottles and other missiles at the mosque and police, a police van was set alight and 27 officers were taken to hospital.

More riots broke out across England, from Plymouth on the south coast to Sunderland in the North East. There have also been riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

About 250 people having been jailed to date over the disorder.

• Read more about the summer riots

Laura talks now about the riots which broke out in parts of the country following the deaths of three children during an attack in Southport in July.

At the time, Starmer said the unrest showed a "societal black hole" – Laura asks what he meant.

"The riots, I think, were symbolic of a broken society," he explains.

He says the riots "are not capable of justification", but the "societal black hole" was a "breaking of our society which we need to mend".

Starmer adds the government had to "regain control", ensure there were enough police on the frontline and that the courts were able to process cases.

Laura's pre-recorded interview with Keir Starmer is being broadcast live now.

She starts by asking Starmer what it was like to enter No 10 for the first time after winning the election.

"It was a really important moment," the prime minister says, adding it was a moment of change for him and the country.

He recalls walking up Downing Street, which was lined with his supporters after his party's victory, and says walking through the door to No 10 was the moment when he "really took it in".

Image source, Jeff Overs/ BBC

Image source, Sunday People/Sunday Mirror

First order of the show: a look at the papers. There's a real mix of stories on today's front pages – and plenty of politics.

The Sunday Express reports that Keir Starmer faces his first major rebellion this week over planned cuts to winter fuel payments.

And the Sunday People leads on comments Unite union's secretary general made to the BBC, where she questioned why Labour is "picking the pockets of pensioners on the winter fuel payments instead of making those with the broadest shoulders actually pay".

The Mail on Sunday looks at the government's wider tax and spend plans, claiming a record number of high earners who contribute the biggest share to the Treasury are preparing to "flee the country".

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports on a claim from former housing secretary Michael Gove that plans to restrict the import of products from overseas firms that lied about the safety of materials in the Grenfell Tower fire were thwarted by the "commercial purism of Treasury Mandarin Brain".

• Read our full review of Sunday's papers

We're off! Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is now on air – you can follow our stream by pressing the watch live button at the top of this page.

We'll also bring you the key lines and analysis here on this page, so stay with us.

You’ll be able to watch Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg live from 09:00 BST by hitting the watch live button at the top of this page.

The programme will also be available on BBC One and iPlayer – and we’ll be bringing you live updates and analysis throughout here.

Image source, Getty Images

Later, we'll be hearing from Tom Tugendhat, who is one of five candidates left standing in the contest to take over from Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party.

Earlier this week, Priti Patel was knocked out of the contest after the first round of voting by Tory MPs. Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick topped the poll with 28 votes, Kemi Badenoch received 22, James Cleverly 21, Tom Tugendhat 17, and Mel Stride 16 – Patel was knocked out with 14.

On Monday, Tory MPs will vote again, eliminating another candidate, and the remaining four will then make their pitch to members at the party's conference in Birmingham in a few weeks time.

Tory MPs will then whittle the field to two contenders in early October, with the party’s membership then given the final say.

The new leader is due to be named on 2 November. You can read more about the candidates here.

Image source, PA Media

This week saw the publication of the Grenfell inquiry’s final report, which concluded that all 72 deaths in the 2017 fire were "avoidable".

Manufacturers of some of the materials involved were accused of "systematic dishonesty", and the report described government failures to identify the risks over how fire safety in high-rise buildings has been regulated.

The questions now are: will the report's recommendations be implemented in full? And if so, when? And how long will the wait for justice be?

Meanwhile, court proceedings for those involved in the summer riots continued throughout this week.

The government has argued swift justice acted as a deterrent to further disorder, but the already overcrowded prison system in England and Wales is under increasing strain.

The prison population hit a record high for the second week in a row on Friday – the government's proposed solution, an early release scheme, begins this week.

And the fallout over the government's decision to make the winter fuel payment means-tested for millions of pensioners continued, with both the Tories and the Lib Dems putting the spotlight on it at PMQs.

Starmer's 'blame the Tories' strategy will not hold foreverpublished at 07:54 British Summer Time 8 September

07:54 BST 8 September

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Image source, Jeff Overs/ BBC

Every Downing Street administration I’ve covered has been stunned at how fiercely No 10 gets the blame for almost all of the country’s ills. This government is trying to stave that off for as long as possible by shouting from the rooftops: “It’s not us, guv!”

Since taking power, the government’s message has been relentlessly focused on what they say is the dire state of the economy, the dreadful state of our prisons. A big review of the NHS is due, so prepare to hear about the terrible condition of parts of the health service, too.

They’ve been blaming the Tories as much as humanly possible. As one senior government source told me: “I'm prepared for people to get sick of hearing about the inheritance from the Tories.”

And in case you didn’t feel a bit depressed already, in his first big speech of the new political season, Sir Keir told us things might get even worse.

Prime miserable, as well as prime minister?

• Read Laura's analysis in full

We’ll also have a panel of guests joining Laura in the studio to discuss this morning’s interviews and political news, including:

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - a TV presenter and chef who campaigns on food and environmental issues. He announced in 2021 that he had joined the Green Party.

Pippa Crerar - political editor of the Guardian. She previously held the same position at the Daily Mirror, where she broke a number of stories about lockdown parties at No 10 during the pandemic.

Victoria Newton - editor of the Sun. She previously ran the Sun's showbiz column, Bizarre, and was deputy editor at the News of the World at the time of its closure in 2011 in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.