Laura continues to press him on the clip, emphasising that one of the members of his own team said the policy was "crap".

Cleverly again says he did that to "grab the attention of the audience", saying that Sunderland is committed to the policy and that he did also say in that same clip that the "deterrence" will dissuade the people-smuggling gangs

Why he picked that word, I don't know, Cleverly adds.

Image source, Jeff Overs/BBC

First, James Cleverly is asked about a recording obtained by the BBC of his aide calling the government's flagship Rwanda policy "crap".

James Sunderland - who was the MP for Bracknell from 2019 to 2024 and is running to represent the constituency again - was recorded making the comment at a private event in April.

The home secretary says the "opening words were clearly designed to shock and grab the attention of the audience".

Cleverly say Sunderland worked incredibly hard on the policy and says he was right to tell the audience it would act as a deterrent in the later part of the video.

Image source, PA Media

Laura is now taking her panel guests through this morning's papers, with the general election continuing to dominate headlines, as well as reactions to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage's Ukraine comments.

The Observer leads with claims that Labour's plan for economic growth is destined for failure without better access to EU markets, while The Sunday Express says, external the Conservatives are warning that Labour would hold a "special budget" within weeks of winning an election, to fill a £2 billion black hole in their spending plans. Labour has dismissed the analysis as "desperate nonsense".

• Read more of this morning's headlines here

And we’re live - Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is now on air on BBC One, the BBC News Channel and BBC iPlayer.

You can press the play button above to watch the show.

And we’ll bring you live text updates, clips, reaction and analysis right here on this page.

A fourth Conservative reportedly being looked into over betting on the timing of the general election is the party's chief data officer, according, external to the Sunday Times.

Senior official Nick Mason is accused of placing dozens of bets on the election date, the paper claimed, adding that he has taken a leave of absence from his role.

A spokesperson for Mason told the Sunday Times he denied any wrongdoing.

As always, you’ll be able to watch Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg live at 09:00 BST without leaving this page - just hit the play button at the top.

If you’re on your phone and can’t see the button, simply refresh your feed shortly after the programme starts and it should appear.

The programme will also be available on BBC One and iPlayer - and we’ll bring you live updates, clips, reaction and analysis right here.

Stay tuned.

As always, we’ll have a panel of guests joining Laura in the studio today.

They will be reacting to this morning’s interviews, analysing what’s been said and giving their takes on the week’s political news.

We’ll be hearing from:

• Labour peer Lord Mandelson, who was a key architect of New Labour, will be here. He resigned from the board of his lobbying firm Global Counsel earlier in the week. Lord Mandelson has previously ruled out a return to politics but said he will “always be a cheerleader and champion of a Labour government”
• Another House of Lords member, Conservative peer Lord Philip Hammond, will be on the panel too. He has previously served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (2016 to 2019), Foreign Secretary (2014 to 2016) and Defence Secretary (2011to 2014)
• Television presenter Susanna Reid will also be on the panel. She’s the presenter of ITV’s Good Morning Britain and was also a BBC Breakfast co-presenter from 2001 to 2014

Alison Holt
Social affairs editor

About a million people in England receive services that support them in care homes as well in their own homes, according to the King’s Fund think-tank.

Many who rely on the care system want to know why the major political parties aren’t talking about it more.

And the care system is among the issues most commonly raised by people contacting the BBC's Your Voice Your Vote - which lets you suggest stories for BBC News to look into.

Some older and disabled people are left having to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds towards their care.

Age UK estimates that a further 2.6 million people need support with day-to-day tasks like washing, dressing and medication, but aren’t able to get that help.

In short, the system is outdated, unfair and crying out for reform - and on that there is broad political agreement.

But the two main political parties have steered away from detailed plans.

In the first televised leaders’ debate of the general election campaign, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer spent a total of 36 seconds on the subject - neither challenging the other on what they said.

For a detail looked at how the care system figures into this election, the full BBC InDepth piece is available here.

Image source, Reuters

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly will be in Laura Kuenssberg’s red chair in a little while, where he’ll be facing a grilling over the Conservatives’ election campaign and pledges.

We’re expecting him to be asked about one of the talking points from the last week - allegations that Tory insiders were betting on the election - and immigration is also likely to be on the agenda.

We’ll also be hearing from Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who will most likely be asked about Labour’s promise to add tax on private school fees.

The plan would be used to raise money to recruit extra teachers for state schools and fund more childcare.

SNP leader John Swinney is also on the programme and will undoubtedly be speaking about his party’s manifesto, which launched earlier in the week and has a strong focus on Scottish independence.

In an earlier post, we read about how an ex-aide to Home Secretary James Cleverly described the Conservatives flagship Rwanda immigration policy as "crap".

James Sunderland, who is running in the seat of Bracknell, made the comments at a Young Conservatives event in April and has said he's disappointed a recording was made of his remarks at a private event.

Cleverly will likely be pressed on these comments - but before we hear from him, it's worth a reminder of what exactly is the government's Rwanda scheme and what's the latest on it?

At the heart of the scheme, approved in April 2022, is that any asylum seeker who enters the UK illegally from a safe country - such as France - will have their claim processed in Rwanda, not the UK.

The policy, backdated to 1 January 2022, means asylum seekers can't return to the UK and would either stay in Rwanda or seek asylum in a "safe third country".

The scheme has attracted much criticism and in November 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unlawful as it breaches the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK is a signatory to this treaty.

It's been confirmed that no flights from the UK to Rwanda will happen until at least 24 July.

Read more about the scheme here.

Image source, .

We're now hearing from Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) - an economics think tank which has been looking into the main party's spending plans.

He told BBC Breakfast there is a risk of "sharp cuts" regardless of who wins on 4 July and says both the Labour and Conservative manifestos don’t confront the underlying situation with the public finances.

He says that without any tax rises or day-to-day spending changes, the next government will inherit a situation where there are "pretty big cuts to many areas of public spending just to make the government's existing plans adds up".

Emmerson points to so-called unprotected areas like further education and prisons, which he suggests may end up being targeted in order to protect budgets for things like health and defence.

The IFS has calculated that without any tax rises, there may need be cuts of around £30bn to spending on services and investment, and says “neither of the big parties are confronting those issues”.

Image source, Reuters

Allegations that people linked to the prime minister used insider knowledge to gamble on the timing of the general election has been one of the issues dominating the campaign this week. It's also likely to be brought up on Laura Kuenssberg's programme, which gets going in just over an hour.

Five people with ties to Rishi Sunak are now being looked into by authorities. Here's how this story had unfolded:

• 22 May: Sunak surprises many in Westminster by calling a general election on 4 July, months earlier than many had expected
• 12 June: It emerges that Conservative candidate Craig Williams - who first became an MP in 2015 and served as an aide to Sunak until recently - is under investigation over a bet he placed on the timing of the general election
• 13 June: Williams tells the BBC the £100 bet was a "huge error of judgement"
• 19 June: At around 17:00, the BBC reveals a police officer in Sunak's personal security detail has been arrested and suspended over allegations he placed a bet on the timing of the election
• 19 June: Hours later, it emerges a second Tory candidate, Laura Saunders, is being looked into by the Gambling Commission over claims she placed a bet
• 20 June: The BBC reveals that Saunders' husband Tony Lee - who is the Conservative Party's director of campaigning - is also being looked into over an alleged election bet and has taken a leave of absence from his party role
• 23 June: A senior Conservative Party official is accused of placing dozens of bets on the election date, which the Sunday Times - which first reported the story - claimed could have generated thousands of pounds in winnings

Nigel Farage's comments on the Ukraine war have also been dominating the headlines this week.

As a reminder, the Reform UK leader has faced criticism after he told the BBC on Friday night that the West "provoked" Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

His remarks have been met with swift criticism from leaders across the political spectrum, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying the comments are "completely wrong and only plays into Putin's hands" and Labour leader Keir Starmer calling them "disgraceful".

Since then, the former UKIP leader has doubled down on his comments. Writing in the Telegraph, he says he has never been an "apologist or supporter of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin" but that "if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds".

"Don’t blame me for telling the truth about Putin’s war in Ukraine," adding that he wants to "set the record straight," he says.

Jack Fenwick
Political reporter

A leading think tank has warned of a £4bn “hole” in the social care plans of the three main parties in England.

Four years ago the government announced a plan that would put a cap on the amount someone has to pay for care costs throughout their lifetime.

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have all said they are in favour of bringing in those reforms after the general election.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies(IFS) has told the BBC that the money initially set aside to implement the reforms has already been spent on other priorities and would need to be found again.

The reforms were set to be introduced in 2023. That was delayed until October 2025, but councils were allowed to keep the money.

“So whilst at one stage it was funding set aside for social care reform,” said David Phillips, head of local government finance at the IFS, “that isn't there now”.

Instead, the money has been used by local authorities on “existing pressures” or “rolled into the overall tight spending envelopes”.

The government’s initial impact assessment estimated that the costs of rolling out the reforms would be around £4bn.

The IFS believes that extra cash would need to be found by around 2028.

• Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

With less than a fortnight to go until the public take to the polls in the general election, the election campaign has been getting increasingly intense.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the main talking points from the election trail this week:

• The prime minister has said he was “incredibly angry” to learn of allegations that Tory insiders were betting on the election and has promised to “boot out” of his party anyone found to have broken gambling laws
• Opinion polls are continuing to predict that Labour is on course to win a huge majority at the general election and latest figures show Labour raised nearly 15 times as much as the Tories in large donations in the second week of the general election campaign
• However, it’s not all been plain sailing for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. He’s been pressed on previously supporting his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, who Starmer eventually expelled from the Labour party following a row over antisemitism, and says he believed Corbyn would have been a “better prime minister” than Boris Johnson
• Elsewhere in the week, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has defended his claim that the West provoked Russia's invasion of Ukraine, following condemnation from leaders across the political spectrum - his party released its proposals for the election before that row
• The SNP has launched its manifesto, which says independence is its goal as well as boosting NHS funding and scrapping the two-child limit on benefits
• Welsh Labour and the Welsh Conservative Party also both launched their manifestos on Friday
• The Liberal Democrats have called for fuel duty relief to be expanded to 20 new areas to support motorists in rural communities

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Image source, UK Parliament

A Conservative parliamentary candidate and ex-aide to Home Secretary James Cleverly has described the government's flagship Rwanda immigration policy as "crap".

James Sunderland, who was the MP for Bracknell from 2019 to 2024 and is running to represent the constituency again, was recorded expressing the view at a private event in April.

In the recording, passed to the BBC, he is heard to say: "The policy is crap, OK? It’s crap." He goes on to defend the plan, saying it will deter migrants from trying to enter the UK by crossing the Channel. "It’s not about the policy. It’s about the effect of the policy," he says.

Sunderland was speaking on 2 April at an event for Young Conservatives organised by a group called the True Blue Patrons Supper Club and titled: "What’s it like behind the scenes at the Home Office". He has been a parliamentary private secretary to both Cleverly and Suella Braverman.

Sunderland told the BBC: "I am disappointed that I was recorded at a private event. I candidly answered questions. I was talking about the response to the policy. The policy itself is not the be all and end all but part of a wider response.”

• Read more on this story here

A fourth Conservative is reportedly being looked into by the Gambling Commission over bets allegedly placed on the date of the general election.

The Sunday Times is reporting that a senior Conservative Party official allegedly placed dozens of bets, which the paper says could have generated winnings of thousands of pounds.

A spokesman for the official told the paper that he denied wrongdoing, while the Tory party said it was "not permitted to discuss any matters related" to any Gambling Commission investigation.

The BBC has previously reported that two Conservative election candidates and another party official are also being investigated.

The Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of being "mired" in sleaze, while Tory minister Michael Gove compared the situation to the partygate scandal.

• Read more here.

Johanna Chisholm
Live reporter

It’s a sunny Sunday morning in London and while our coffee has yet to fully kick in, we’re certain today’s political line up will have us sitting at attention in not too long.

As a reminder, there's just 11 days between now and the day voters across the UK cast ballots to decide who will be the country’s next prime minister.

It might not seem like a lot, but if you catalogue all the things that have happened over the last 11 days – an election betting scandal, multiple manifestos launches and a handful of televised debates – there’s still a lot of runway left for politicians to make their pitch.

Speaking of which, we’re soon going to be hearing from some of these figures shortly on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, with James Cleverly, Bridget Philipson and John Swinney all joining her in the studio in the next couple of hours.

Away from the Sunday broadcast round, we’ll turn our keyboards back to the campaign trail, where we’re expecting to see Rishi Sunak out in North Yorkshire and Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper in the east of England.

You won’t want to miss a minute of it – but if you do, remember you're always just one quick scroll back on this page to get all caught up on the latest.