Laura has finished interviewing the prime minister and turns to the panel.

Stay with us as we bring you their analysis, as well as clips from the interview

Now onto politics, and the upcoming election.

Sunak is asked about the resignations of Tory MPs - and the claim that 53 others are planning to stand down.

How can viewers have confidence in your project, Kuenssberg asks?

It's been a tough time for our country, Sunak says, referencing the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the struggling economy.

But I believe we've "turned a corner", he says, and that his plan is starting to deliver the "long-term change the country needs".

Kuenssberg says Labour leader Starmer's campaign is called "Project Hope" - what will your slogan be?

Sunak replies that it's not about slogans, and its far more important to make a difference to people's lives.

Sunak adds that his plan will help give people hope for the future and pride in their country.

Laura asks if the government will take away the Post Office's ability to prosecute.

Sunak replies that the justice secretary is looking at that.

"Obviously there's legal complexity in all those things, but he's looking at that," Sunak says.

"It's right that we find every way to try and make this right for the people who were wrongfully treated at the time."

Image source, ITV

Between 1999 and 2015 more than 700 sub-postmasters were accused of wrongdoing based on information from a faulty accounting system, Horizon.

Many say they were wrongly convicted.

Police have confirmed that the Post Office is under investigation for possible fraud offences arising from the prosecutions.

An ITV drama about the scandal has brought it back into the limelight, and 50 new potential victims contacted their lawyers following its success.

Find out more here.

Kuenssberg is now asking the prime minister about the Post Office scandal.

A former postmistress, Susan Knight, asks Sunak what he will do to provide fair and final compensation to the victims of the scandal.

Sunak says everyone has been "shocked" by what happened, calling it an "appalling miscarriage of justice".

He says it is important they get the justice they deserve, and says the government has paid out more than £150m in compensation to those affected.

He adds that anyone affected should come forward and talk to the relevant bodies.

The Post Office, Kuenssberg reminds viewers, is wholly owned by the government.

Kuenssberg asks the prime minister about the tax burden, saying those on the lowest incomes have not benefitted from the recent cuts to National Insurance.

Sunak says that the government has raised the national insurance threshold for those on the lowest income.

The average person who earns £35,000 a year will see a tax cut worth £450, he says.

Sunak is asked which bits of the public sector he wants to shrink.

The PM says that the priority is to "control spending, control welfare so that we can cut people's taxers".

He says it takes discipline to cut taxes, which is what he has done.

A viewer called Gary wanted to put his question to Sunak, says Laura.

Gary says that from "NHS delivery to potholes on roads and everything in between, delivery is getting worse and there are no signs of improvement in the near future... it's not good enough to blame Covid or wars, the bottom line is it feels worse for many ordinary people".

Is he wrong?

Sunak says that since last year, we've avoided a year-long deep recession, we've avoided that.

Inflation was running at 11% and has now more than halved, he adds.

The chancellor has now announced £20bn of tax cuts - they came in this weekend, Sunak says.

"We've made progress, the plan is working, and the job now is to stick to that plan".

Continuing on the NHS, Laura says that NHS waiting lists are up.

Sunak says he is still committed to bringing waiting lists down.

He adds that he always said it would be around spring of 2024 that lists would fall properly.

"In spite of the record resources we've put into the NHS, we are treating more people than ever before but waiting lists have not come down as much as I'd have liked," he says.

Laura adds that 7.71 million people are waiting for procedures. "Yes, it's far too long," the prime minister agrees.

Sunak accepts that has happened on his watch. "We are doing all the right things.... we've obviously been hindered by industrial action."

The prime minister says that there was a period without any strikes at the end of last year, and waiting lists started to fall, which gives him confidence that once industrial action is resolved, waiting lists will continue to fall.

Moving onto the NHS, the prime minister is asked whether he would be willing to improve his offer to junior doctors if strikes remain a problem.

"We already have," says Sunak. He says the government has reached a resolution with every other part of the NHS, and that the only holdouts that remain are the junior doctors.

The pay offer that they already have is "more generous" than other parts of the NHS, he says.

"I would strongly urge them to come back, talk to the governement so that we can resolve this industrial action and start getting the waiting lists down."

Kuenssberg asks how the prime minister would get around Rule 39 - an emergency measure by European courts to stop a plane from taking off for Rwanda.

Sunak says that he remains determined to stop the boats, and "won't let a foreign court stop our ability to remove people".

He declines to answer if he will ignore a Rule 39 measure.

Sunak adds that illegal arrivals have gone down by over a third since he has been PM - while they have risen in the Europe.

Rishi Sunak says the principle of the deterrent is that "if you come here illegally, you shouldn't be able to stay here and you will be returned, either to your home country or to a safe alternative like Rwanda".

He adds: "The principle is that you won't be able to stay here because we will have somewhere else to send you."

Sunak goes on to say that the Labour party disagrees with having a deterrent and a workable returns agreement, but his view is that you can't solve the problem without it.

Laura Kuenssberg says that Sir Keir Starmer will be appearing on the programme next week and she'll be sure to ask him about his views.

Sunak is pressed on the controversial scheme to send migrants to Rwanda. Does he deny completely that he ever had any doubts about the efficacy of sending migrants to Rwanda?

"I absolutely believe in the value of having deterrence," Sunak says. He links the Rwanda scheme and the returns deal with Albania, saying they both act as deterrents to prevent asylum seekers from illegally coming to the UK.

He says he was chancellor when the scheme was funded and passed.

Are you admitting you had hesitations, Kuenssberg presses?

"No," he replies.

Sunak adds that it was his job to ask probing questions about every policy that came across his desk, and that just because someone asks tough questions does not mean they disagree with a proposal.

After a quick discussion with the panel, Laura Kuenssberg kicks off the programme with the first question to the prime minister, about immigration.

Referencing documents seen by the BBC, she asks the PM if he will admit that he had reservations about the Rwanda policy.

Sunak says no. He adds that he when he was chancellor he discussed the policy with then-PM Boris Johnson, and then funded the policy.

• Rishi Sunak had significant doubt over Rwanda plan, papers suggest

On deterrence, he says he signed a new deal with Albania after becoming PM, which saw numbers arriving from Albania dropping, which he says shows that deterrence works.

Laura says the documents she had seen described his view as being that deterrence would not work. Does he agree with that?

Sunak says he hasn't seen these documents that she's referring to, and his truth is in his action - he prioritised getting the scheme up and running from Albania.

Image source, PA Media

This week's panel have just discussed what Rishi Sunak needs to do to persuade voters to vote for the Conservatives in the general election. He needs to project an image of hope, they say, and needs to turn things around if he hopes to be elected Prime Minister.

• Fraser Nelson: British journalist, editor of the Spectator magazine and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He’s an avid political commentator and regularly shares his views on social media

• Baroness Louise Casey: A crossbench peer in the House of Lords since 2020. She’s held a number of top jobs including being made director general of the government’s Troubled Families scheme in 2011. Casey’s name became well-known in 2021 when she was appointed to lead an independent review of the Met Police following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer - her review found that the force had issues with racism, misogyny and homophobia
• Jon Culshaw: English actor, comedian and impressionist. Arguably best known for his role in the comedy impressions show Dead Ringers, which aired first on BBC Radio 4 and then became a TV series on BBC Two until 2009

Image source, Getty Images

It’s that time - Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is now live now on BBC One, the BBC News Channel and BBC iPlayer.

Press Play above to watch the show and we’ll bring you live text updates, clips, reaction and analysis right here on this page.

While we wait for Rishi Sunak to appear on Laura Kuenssberg's programme in a few minutes, Sir Keir Starmer has been speaking to Sky News.

He said that the country was ready for an election and the sooner it was held, the better.

The Labour leader accused the PM of not having a plan, saying the only reason Sunak had suggested the latter part of the year for the vote was because he "wanted to have two years clocked up of his own premiership".

Sunak was "putting vanity before the country," Starmer said.

Starmer was also pressed on several issues that will come up in this election year.

On tax cuts, he refused to say which tax he would cut first to reduce the burden on working people, instead saying that the only way to do that was to grow the economy.

He added that growing the economy was one of Labour's "five central missions", another being to delivery clean power by 2030 which he said would "reduce our bills" and guarantee energy security.

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

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

The programme will also be available on BBC One and iPlayer.

We’ll bring you live updates, clips, reaction and analysis right here. Stay tuned.

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Image source, PA Media

Rishi Sunak had significant doubts about sending migrants to Rwanda when he was chancellor, papers seen by the BBC suggest.

They suggest Sunak wanted to scale back No 10's original plans.

They also indicate he was not sure the plan would stop Channel crossings. We'll explore this more in our interview with him today.

And they suggest he was reluctant to fund reception centres to accommodate migrants instead of using hotels or private housing because "hotels are cheaper".

As prime minister, under pressure from his party, Sunak has made the Rwanda plan one of his top priorities.

The scheme to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and potentially resettlement, in order to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats, was first announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022.

Sunak - who became prime minister in October 2022 - was Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Rwanda policy was announced.

The deal has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent from the UK so far.

Read the full article here.

Image source, Getty Images

On Friday, polling guru Prof John Curtice spoke to the BBC about why Rishi Sunak may want to delay a general election until the second half of 2024.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Conservatives are averaging around 25% in the polls. He acknowledged that Labour's support has shortened - down five percentage points to 41% at the end of December, according to the latest Ipsos data, external - but questioned whether the Tories could close the gap entirely by May.

"Does [Sunak] take the risk of being a prime minister for only 18 months, which is what a May election would imply,” Curtice said, “or does he at least bank the two years he's definitely, potentially got by waiting until October or November?"

Considering it's the PM's own decision to decide what happens here, Curtice added, "we shouldn't be surprised if he's thinking that maybe it's better to go for as long as possible".

And on what might need to improve before Sunak calls the election, such as the UK economy, Curtice said it's not only about things getting better:

Earlier this week the PM said he was working on the assumption that he’ll hold a general election "in the second half of this year".

There’d been speculation he might call one in May, when there are local elections but Rishi Sunak told broadcasters: "I've got lots that I want to get on with."

Sunak declined to rule out a May election categorically, but repeated his intention to go to the country later in the year: "I want to keep going, managing the economy well and cutting people's taxes.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused him of "squatting in Downing Street for months on end, dithering and delaying while the country wants change".

Read more on this here.