Andre Rhoden-Paul
Live Reporter

We are now ending our live coverage of the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.

This page was edited by Marie Jackson, and written by Sean Seddon, Jennifer Meierhans and me.

You can read more about the government's anti-social behaviour crackdown here, and for reaction to footage of Matt Hancock discussing £10,000-a-day fees with a fake firm, read this.

Thanks for joining us.

During the show, Labour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the party wanted a major review of how the BBC operates to protect its future and independence from government.

She said she had put together a panel of people who would make recommendations to the Labour party on how the BBC can "not just survive into the next few decades but really thrive".

She named some of the people on that panel - but who are they?

• James Purnell is vice chancellor at the University of the Arts in London. He's a former BBC director of strategy and was culture secretary under Labour from 2007 to 2009.
• June Sarpong is a presenter and broadcaster who was formerly the BBC’s first director of creative diversity
• Steve Morrison was chief executive of Granada and became the founding chief executive, then Chairman of All3Media. He is listed as a BBC non-executive director on the commercial Board until 31 March 2023
• Lou Cordwell is chairman of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership. She has worked with the BBC on digital projects and was awarded an OBE for services to the creative and digital economy

A little earlier, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell announced the Labour Party has launched an independent review into the “future direction” of the BBC.

Its recommendations will help shape Labour policy.

"We believe very strongly in a universally publicly-funded BBC," she said.

"I do think its important that we closely scrutinise and really reset and rebuild a consensus around some of these issues, because this is one of the reasons why the BBC has not felt that it could be as independent and punchy as it might want to be because there are just constant questions about defunding it."

As we've been hearing, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove says the government is going to ban laughing gas - but the panel asked for its advice on this decision said this was going too far.

Nitrous oxide, sold in metal canisters, is the second most-used drug by 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK. Heavy use can lead to a vitamin deficiency that damages nerves in the spinal cord.

But the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said it should not be banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

It said punishments for the offences would be disproportionate with the level of harm associated with nitrous oxide, as well as creating "significant burdens" for legitimate uses of the substance.

Nitrous oxide is regularly used as an anaesthetic in medicine and dentistry, and as a gas for making whipped cream in cooking.

Misuse of laughing gas is currently controlled under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, which the council said "remains appropriate legislation".

It is currently illegal to produce, supply and import nitrous oxide for inhaling but it's not illegal to possess it. You can read more about the rules here.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove confirmed on the show that nitrous oxide will be banned - but what is it?

Widely sold in small metal canisters, nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, is a colourless gas used as a propellant - for example, in whipped-cream dispensers.

Hospitals and dental practices also use big cannisters of it as an anaesthetic that patients inhale.

Some of those who misuse the substance - sometimes referred to as "hippy crack" - inhale it via a balloon or use a dispenser or "cracker".

Heavy frequent use can lead to a vitamin deficiency that can cause serious permanent nerve damage and lasting paralysis.

But inhaling the gas directly from a large canister is particularly dangerous and can be fatal because it is under such high pressure and comes out extremely cold, which can:

• damage the throat and lungs
• halt breathing
• slow the heart to a dangerous level

Image source, PA

One of the big moments of this morning's show came when Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove told Laura Kuenssberg nitrous oxide - or laughing gas - was set to be banned.

If you missed it, here's a clip of what he said - that it can have a "potentially damaging effect on young brains and young nervous systems so we need to stop it".

But what Gove didn't say was how the government would go about creating the ban and how it would be enforced. As Laura points out the independent panel that advises ministers on these kinds of policies says a ban would be "disproportionate".

This week's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg was packed with announcements and analysis - here's a summary of the key takeaways.

• Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove confirmed the government is going to ban nitrous oxide, despite the Home Office's own drugs advisory council recommending it shouldn't
• He also said it would be up to constituents to make a judgement call on the MPs featured in a fake company sting, in which ex-ministers including Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng discussed £10,000 a day fees
• Labour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the party wants a major review of how the BBC operates to protect its future and independence from government
• West Midlands mayor and former John Lewis boss Andy Street said it would be a "tragedy" for the firm to ditch its famous business model
• Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who is living in Paris in exile after she protested against the Ukraine war on state TV, has revealed her hopes that Putin could be toppled and that she will be able to return to her country
• Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, says there is still a "huge amount of uncertainty" around what will happen with inflation, despite government confidence it will sharply fall

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

We asked a big question this morning, when will the country start to feel a bit better off. The verdict from the Office for Budget Responsibility boss that it might be another five or six years before real incomes feel a bit better is pretty bleak. But former Bank of England top brass, Andy Haldane, and the former John Lewis boss, Andy Street who is now a Conservative mayor, reckoned things might feel cheerier than that a bit sooner.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove wanted to emphasise that the government has, like other governments around the world, had to grapple with two big shocks - the war and the pandemic, which have had massive effects on the country’s income. Less keen to highlight the other calculation from the OBR that leaving the EU has cost the economy too, the equivalent of another shock, a 4% hit.

There’ll be more from him and the prime minister tomorrow about their plans to tackle anti-social behaviour. They’re going to ban nitrous oxide, and are promising quicker community punishments for offenders who make others’ lives a misery.

The trouble is if it feels rather familiar to you, that’s because it is. For years, successive governments have made big promises to "crack down" on problems in the community, while, by Mr Gove’s own admission, other parts of the justice system haven’t been working well enough.

Anti-social behaviour certainly can blight the lives of families it affects, that’s why the Conservatives and the Labour Party are talking about it now. But with £160m going into this new, renewed push, there may be questions about whether it is the right priority for now.

Reality Check

Richard Hughes, who we heard from at the start of the show, is chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which comes up with the independent forecasts that appear in the Budget.

He told Laura Kuenssberg that the OBR’s “forecasting record turns out to be slightly better than the forecasting record of the Treasury when it was doing the forecasts, back before 2010”.

We took a look at its record at the time of the Autumn Statement, and it turned out that its forecasts for economic growth were slightly better than the average forecast in the City.

You can read more about it here.

And that's it from Laura for another week - stay tuned for plenty more big politics news and analysis.

She'll be back in the same place and time next week, 9am on BBC One.

Stay with us as we digest what we've heard in the last hour.

With the show's interviews over, the panel is asked about the departing Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane says she has "more to say" on climate, inequality and democracy and "watch this space".

Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres is asked if it was likely Sturgeon would get a job at the United Nations.

She says: "I think her trajectory and experience actually would make her a very strong candidate for many international positions, not just the UN."

After the World Athletics Federation's decision to ban trans women from competing in womens events, Powell is asked if other sports should do the same.

She says it's for other sport governing bodies to look at, saying that inclusion needs to be achieved but it needs to be balanced against fair competition and meeting safety standards.

She says some sports are easier to achieve inclusion in, saying it's a difficult issue that needs to be assessed depending on the particulars of the sport.

Powell is asked if Labour would keep the BBC licence fee after 2027.

She says she "believes very strongly" in the BBC being universally funded.

She adds it allows the BBC to run services like Bitesize, which offers free online study support for UK school pupils, and report local and international news.

Laura asks Powell if Labour would commit to not appointing a BBC chairman with links to its party.

Powell says the panel will look at this issue and make recommendations.

She adds that a career in politics should not stop people from applying for the chairman role, but the appointment needed to be "fully transparent" and the best person should get the job.

Laura asks if the easiest way to restore credibility would be to definitively rule out people with political links being appointed to senior BBC posts.

Powell says that will be looked at but there could be practical problems in reality as it could narrow the field, pointing out that many people have at some time expressed public views on contentious issues.

She says there's a need for more transparency in the appointment process.

Now Laura is talking to Labour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell, who is announcing an independent review into how the BBC is run.

She says Labour supports the BBC as a universal publicly funded public service broadcaster, which supplies trusted news at home and abroad.

But she says it faces some "serious headwinds" and its future is "constantly under attack" and its funding questioned.

The independence and impartiality of the BBC have been scrutinised, she says and the explosion of streaming services have also changed the picture.

She says given the charter renewal process will be well under way by the time of the next general election, now is the time to put together a panel to advise and make recommendations to the Labour party on how the BBC can not just survive but really thrive in the decades ahead.

She says she is pleased that people like James Purnell, June Sarpong, Steve Morrison and Lou Cordwell (all of whom have worked with the BBC in the past) would be on that panel.

Ovsyannikova says after her protest her son called her a "traitor" and said she betrayed her family and country. She says the war has destroyed millions of families and this is "a real catastrophe".

"Russians are being destroyed by Putin not only physically by him sending them to war, but also on the psychological level." She says Russia is now "deep in depression".

"There is an apathy everywhere," she says "And millions of people just don’t know what the future holds."

Wrapping up the interview Laura asks Ovsyannikova if she feels it will ever be safe for her to go home. She says: "I can't go back now. But I do see my future with Russia, my son is there, my family is there and my mum. They don’t want to leave the country. So for me, I’m not indifferent to the future of this country, I will fight for the future, even being outside of Russia."

Ovsyannikova tells Laura before her protest she was "really ashamed that this war started".

"I couldn’t eat, sleep or drink," she adds. "A lot of my friends from abroad were texting me asking, what’s going on, has Putin gone mad? And I thought, yeah, really, he really went mad."

Asked how many people believe the propaganda in Russia she says "people who are working in the main media channels, they don’t really believe it.

"They have similar views to me and also you can say people who are pro-Putin and convinced in him, it’s no more than 10%, 20%."

Laura asks if she thinks the arrest warrant for President Putin issued by the international criminal court will help end the war or actually be a badge of honour for him.

She says it is "perhaps a sign that a plot against him might start among the Russian elite against Putin. At least I have some kind of hope for that."

Ovsyannikova says her protest was like "this huge emotional outburst but I didn’t really care what would happen to me later". She says she expected to face a 10 year prison sentence.

She says a year after the protest she was put under house arrest and her solicitor helped her to find a way to leave Russia during the night.

"We changed about seven cars. The last car was stuck in the mud, it wasn’t going according to the plan. I was almost screaming thinking and saying it’s better for me to go back to Russia, go to prison. But my daughter was saying, get up, let’s go, we have to cross this border."

Laura is now sharing her interview with exiled Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova.

You might remember she made headlines around the world last March when she burst into a live news broadcast at the state-run Channel One TV station where she worked at the time, with a sign reading "no war, stop the war; don't believe the propaganda; they're lying to you here".

She starts by telling Laura she was moved to protest because she "realised that the Russian TV became a gigantic brainwashing machine".

She say her father is Ukrainian and during her childhood she lived through similar experiences to the refugees.

Former John Lewis boss Andy Street says it would be a tragedy if the firm ditched its business model.

The company is considering a potential change to its employee-owned business structure, upending more than 70 years of tradition.

The group, which also owns Waitrose, is currently fully owned by its staff, who receive a share in the profits.

But in the face of tougher trading, the firm is said to be exploring the idea of selling a minority stake.

Street, who is now the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, says John Lewis is more than a shop, and has demonstrated to the market a different way of doing business, urging its current bosses to stick with the model.