Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us or need a catch-up, here's a look back at some of the highlights of this morning's episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, which featured the new man in 11 Downing Street.

• New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he's "not taking anything off the table" when it comes to balancing the books, and will ask every government department to find more efficiency savings
• Despite alluding to a squeeze on public spending and tax rises, Hunt said he didn't believe there would be a return to the kind of austerity seen in the UK in the early 2010s
• He dismissed suggestions he was now running the country, insisting that "the prime minister is in charge"
• Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds accused the government of doing "terrible damage" to people's finances, saying Labour has a "completely different economic philosophy"
• Reynolds said Labour couldn't commit to cutting the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p despite earlier support for the government pledge from his leader Sir Keir Starmer
• Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Prime Minister Liz Truss could still hang on to her authority, but only by taking certain steps, including a cabinet reshuffle to bring in members of the "broader Conservative Party"
• Tesco chairman John Allan signalled support for Labour's plans for the economy, saying he'd seen the "beginnings of a quite plausible plan"

You can watch the full episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on iPlayer here.

What happens next? Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt are meeting at the prime minister's weekend retreat in Chequers today. We'll continue to bring you comment and reaction on this page.

As we mentioned in our last post, a lot of the messaging that's been coming out of the Treasury over the last 48 hours has been over the importance of steadying the ship.

Pressed on the possibility of a Tory challenge to Liz Truss's leadership, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said earlier that voters in his South West Surrey constituency wanted stability rather than a change in prime minister.

He told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that the public would judge the Conservatives "much more on what happens in the next 18 months than what's happened in the last 18 days."

Image source, PA Media

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith has admitted mistakes were made in the mini-budget, but says PM Liz Truss's position was safe and that she "has got the support of the government."

He told Sky's Sophy Ridge: "There's things that everybody in government would regret last week, and that's why the government has made changes."

Pressed on what the errors were, he suggested that 23 September mini-budget proposals were made too quickly, without oversight from the finance watchdog the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Griffith dismissed suggestions that the PM should lose her job, saying the country does not want a Labour government but is looking for "calm".

He added: "People at home are just tearing their hair out at the level of uncertainty. What they want to see is a competent government getting on with [the] job."

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

We started this morning asking who was in charge of the country. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says it's not him, and is still the prime minister. But it was so striking to hear him set out his plan for the economy which will involve spending cuts, of one sort or another, and tax rises - literally the opposite of what Liz Truss promised her party in the summer.

Government, with Jeremy Hunt in charge of the money, is a very different place to the Tory leadership campaign trail.

The key question in the next 24 hours for her and him is whether his new tone and change in direction can calm the markets. They open at midnight in Asia, tomorrow morning in London, and the credibility of this new team in No 10 and 11 will be judged immediately.

If it's brutal, or less than calm, it is not impossible that Conservative MPs will move against Liz Truss this week.

Matt Hancock - who we heard from on the programme - was reluctant to be the one who calls for her to go directly, but he set conditions on her staying in office: a new economic plan and a clear out of her supporters from government, to restore trust, and an end to what he described as "slagging off" institutions like the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Those on his side of the economic spectrum in the Tory Party think they have won the argument, but the very public collapse in popularity of the government could set the party on course to lose the next general election.

Businessmen very often try to stay out of politics. But it was notable to hear the boss of Tesco this morning give a tentative thumbs up to the Labour Party.

The Conservatives face an immense challenge to turn the political mood back in their favour.

The economy is fragile, public services are going to be stretched still further, and there's the prospect of strikes too.

Union boss Christina McAnea told us this morning Health Secretary Therese Coffey has not even picked up the phone even though workers are balloting for strike action.

Many in the Tory ranks believe it's not possible for them to recover their fortunes as long as Liz Truss is in charge. Problems of leadership, however, are not the only ones they face.

"Nothing is off the table", when the government looks again at tax and spending, the new chancellor told the BBC earlier.

But Jeremy Hunt insisted the public wouldn't see a return to an era of austerity like the early 2010s.

Let's look back at some of the highlights from this morning's episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said this Conservative government was willing to do the "tough and difficult things" to secure long-term prosperity and stability.

He said while politicians couldn't control the financial markets, they could speak with total candour about difficult decisions.

The Liberal Democrats say Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is asking the public to "clean up their home grown disaster" in response to comments that he'll be asking every government department to find further efficiency savings.

Lib Dem Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney says: "The government has decided that no sacrifice is too great to ask of the British people to clean up their home grown disaster.

She called on Liz Truss to call a general election, saying "every day the Conservatives remain in office is another day of chaos".

"This Conservative Party has trashed the economy, hit millions of people with mortgage hikes and presided over a national humiliation," Olney says.

"Now they are promising cuts that will break our public services and deliver further pain for millions of people who are struggling."

Image source, Liberal Democrats

After hearing from shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, Tesco chairman John Allan says Labour's economic strategy sounds credible.

He says he hasn't seen a growth plan from the Tories, but has seen the "beginnings of a quite plausible plan from Labour" which he described as "attractive".

"There's really only one team on the field at the moment," he adds.

But Tory MP Matt Hancock retorts that we've only seen "blancmange from the Labour Party".

Pressed further on how Labour would fund its own plans - following his criticism of the government - Reynolds says the public "don't expect a Labour government can wave a magic wand".

He claims there has been a "real and lasting impact" of recent market turbulence, which will take time to fix.

The shadow business secretary argues that it's possible to "give people hope for the future" without making "vague promises".

He repeats the calls of opposition parties for a general election.

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds tells Laura Kuenssberg that Labour cannot commit to cutting the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p - something pledged by Prime Minister Liz Truss - despite earlier support for the move from leader Sir Keir Starmer.

He said Starmer's support came before "the Conservative Party set fire to the British economy."

Reynolds said any Labour plans would only be made after a report from the financial watchdog the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).

He added: "We've got to base it on real information, not speculation."

Asked whether there would have to be a spending cuts or tax rises under a Labour government - in response to a potential "black hole" in the country's finances - Reynolds says he can't speculate.

He says he needs to see what the scale of the damage to the UK economy might be.

"In the plans we've already put forward we've been clear that where we wish to increase day to day spending, we will increase the revenue that comes in to pay for that," he says.

He adds that he's absolutely committed to the fiscal rules of Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, under which "we will not borrow for day to day expenditure".

Reynolds says: "We have a completely different economic philosophy to this government as to how growth happens."

Labour's Jonathan Reynolds tells Laura Kuenssberg the party is "not even sure what this government's economic policy is".

Responding to suggestions there could be spending cuts and rising taxes under new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the shadow business secretary asks: "Where do they think they're going to find cuts?"

He accuses the government of doing "terrible damage" to people's finances including mortgage repayments.

Laura Kuenssberg is now speaking to Labour's shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds.

Stay with us on this page as we keep you informed of what he says. And you can watch Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg live using the link at the top of this page.

As the show continues, Prime Minister Liz Truss has tweeted saying she's "going to do things differently" on her quest for economic growth - promising she will "always act in the national interest".

She shares an article she's written for The Sun, which refers to Kwasi Kwarteng's exit from his job as chancellor - something she describes as "a wrench".

Fergus Walsh
Medical editor

Image source, BioNTech/Getty Images

They are the husband and wife team behind one the most successful Covid vaccines, yet in the UK they are barely known.

Professors Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci co-founded the German company BioNTech in 2008, exploring new technology involving messenger RNA(mRNA), to treat cancer.

When the pandemic struck, they partnered with Pfizer to use the same approach to create a Covid vaccine.

Now the doctors are hopeful it could lead to new treatments for melanoma, bowel cancer and other tumour types.

BioNTech has several trials in progress, including one where patients are given a personalised vaccine to prompt their immune system to attack their disease.

The mRNA technology being used works by sending an instruction or blueprint to cells to produce an antigen or protein.

In Covid, this antigen is part of the spike protein of the virus. In cancer it would be a marker on the surface of tumour cells.

This teaches the immune system to recognise and target affected cells for destruction.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Prof Tureci said: "mRNA acts as a blueprint and allows you to tell the body to produce the drug or the vaccine… and when you use mRNA as a vaccine, the mRNA is a blueprint for the 'wanted poster' of the enemy - in this case cancer antigens which distinguish cancer cells from normal cells."

Harnessing the power of mRNA to produce vaccines was unproven until Covid.

But the success of mRNA vaccines in the pandemic has encouraged scientists working with the technology in cancer.

• Read Fergus’ full story here

Matt Hancock has been responding to the new chancellor's comments this morning.

The former health secretary says he thinks people will be "very reassured" by Jeremy Hunt's interview and insists he does not want to see a change of leadership in the Tory party.

But he says Prime Minister Liz Truss needs to do three things to hang on to her authority.

First, she needs to come up with an "economically credible plan".

Next, the PM needs a reshuffle to "bring in the broader Conservative party", he says.

Hancock says Truss took a "respectable but high-risk decision" to only put in the cabinet people who had voted for her, adding: "There’s a huge amount of talent on the back benches."

Lastly, Truss needs to restore trust with voters, Hancock says, and also stop "slagging off institutions" that he says are the are bedrock of prosperity, naming the IMF, the OBR and the Bank of England.

"You can’t go around saying that they have all got it wrong."

No sugar-coating from the new chancellorpublished at 09:27 British Summer Time 16 October 2022

09:27 BST 16 October 2022

Peter Saull
BBC Political Reporter

You might be enjoying a morning cup of tea or coffee as you read this, but the message from the chancellor is that we're all going to have to take some medicine.

There was no sugar-coating things, as he insisted "nothing is off the table" ahead of his economic statement in a fortnight's time.

That means lower public spending, and possibly tax rises, despite being appointed by a prime minister who got the job by promising tax cuts.

Jeremy Hunt dismissed the suggestion that he is now running the country: "The prime minister is in charge," he told Laura Kuenssberg.

And, with the Sunday papers full of reports about plots to replace Liz Truss, he stressed the need for stability at the top of the government.

"The worst thing would be another protracted leadership campaign," he said.

The choice of language is interesting, though, given that there is talk of replacing Liz Truss without giving Conservative members a say.

Asked whether he thinks Liz Truss is a confident leader, Hunt says his boss has been under "extraordinary pressure" but has shown a willingness to change direction and make tough calls.

He says he's known Truss for many years and knows she's "absolutely determined to do the right thing", even though "sometimes that means you're not going to be popular."

Amid disquiet among some Tories over Liz Truss's leadership, Laura Kuenssberg asks Hunt if he'd consider running for the top job again.

Hunt says that after two failed two leadership campaigns the desire to be leader has been "clinically excised from me". What the public wants, he says, is an "honest chancellor".

He denies that the UK was lacking that with Kwasi Kwarteng, saying: "He tried to do some bold things, some of them didn't work out."

Kuenssberg asks the new chancellor why people should now trust what he, or the prime minister, have to say, given the turmoil over the last few weeks.

Hunt says: "Because [Truss] has listened, she’s changed, she’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics which is to change tack."

He's later asked whether he or Liz Truss is leading the government.

He responds: "The prime minister’s in charge."

But it's put to Hunt that he seems to be setting much of the direction.

The chancellor says Truss has changed "the way we’re going to get there", but that "she hasn’t changed the destination, which is to get the country growing".

The chancellor says he'll be asking every government department to find further efficiency savings.

He's then questioned over Liz Truss' tax cut pledges set out in the mini-budget of 23 September, and if these will be dumped. He answers: "I’m not taking anything off the table."

Could there be a return to austerity? Hunt responds: "I was in the cabinet in 2010 when we had that first period of austerity. I don't think we’re going to have anything like that this time."

He insists that this a "compassionate" Conservative government that will take care of the most vulnerable.