Johanna Chisholm
Live reporter

As always, there was never a dull moment on this morning’s edition of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Labour party chair Anneliese Dodds kept the economy front and centre when outlining their parties’ different election agendas - important, since, as Hunt suggested earlier on the programme, voters often cast ballots with their pocketbook in mind.

You can learn more about Hunt’s promise of keeping the triple lock for pensions as part of the Tory election manifesto here.

Meanwhile, panellists from the show - Victoria Newton, Armando Iannucci and Imran Ahmed - provided a spirited conversation about the dangers of misinformation circulating online and in the mainstream media.

This was a point that Patrick Harverson also brought up while discussing the recent cancer diagnosis of the Princess of Wales - which you can read more about here.

We'll be closing this page shortly but before we go, it’s worth noting that this page was written by Jack Burgess and Ece Goksedef and edited by me and Samuel Horti.

That’s all for this week and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Click! That sound you hear is the core pieces of the election snapping into place. After this week, the questions our two big parties will separately pose are clear.

I'm not sure that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has much in common with a Hollywood star turned US presidential hopeful who, in the final week of the 1980 campaign, stared into the camera and said: "Ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?"

But the question Labour will now pose is very similar. It worked for Ronald Reagan - what will it do for Starmer?

Separately, you might have thought Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's claim of a "new economic moment" sounded like the name of an obscure indie band.

But with inflation slowing, and hopes of an interest rate cut soon, the Tories are warming up to asking: "Are you better off than you were a few months ago?"

As the BBC's Faisal Islam has explained, statements from the PM, the Governor of the Bank of England and the shadow chancellor have created chatter about "green shoots of recovery".

But will the public really feel it? Will voters be grateful to the government if they do feel more flush?

And if the economy really is getting better, could that save the Tories from calamity?

Read more here in Laura's weekly blog.

Image source, .

If you’d like to get more insight from Laura throughout the week, head over here to sign up for the Off Air with Laura K newsletter, where she’ll bring you all her latest expert insight and insider stories, emailed directly to you.

Whew, there was a lot in this week's show!

Let's take a quick look at what today's main political guests had to say about one of the main talking points from the programme - the so-called "triple lock" on pension increases.

• Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has committed to keeping the so-called "triple lock" on pension increases if the Conservative party wins the upcoming general election
• Labour party chair Anneliese Dodds didn't say whether her party would include a similar commitment in Labour's manifesto, but says they will set out their plans in detail

As a reminder, the pension triple lock is a government promise to raise publicly funded pensions by the average wage growth, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest.

Also on the programme:

• Public relations executive Patrick Harverson told Laura he believes the mainstream media were "making things worse" for the Royal Family, after last week's revelations about Catherine, Princess of Wales' cancer diagnosis
• Actors Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson spoke to Laura about trigger warnings in plays and said the theatre should continue to “test” and “involve” audiences

Before the programme ended earlier, Laura returned to the panel for one last time.

We heard from Victoria Newton again, who discussed misinformation circulating on social media and how at The Sun, where she serves as editor, they employ lots of journalists to separate the facts from the fiction and they check everything as much as they can.

Imran Ahmed explained how as a founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate US/UK, his organisation works to "bring clarity" to things that platforms might actually be trying to hide from us. He notes that the work his group has done has actually "caused Elon Musk to sue them".

Armando Iannucci had the last words on the panel, and said that: "fact checking costs money and the government should stop trying to take money away from our public broadcasters. If we want something we can trust, it needs to have resources behind it."

As we heard earlier in the programme, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt acknowledged that the pensions "triple lock" will be in the Tory manifesto.

This is a government promise to raise publicly funded pensions by the average wage increase, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest.

When Laura pressed the chancellor about whether he would commit to safeguarding this policy, he told her: "Absolutely. We made that commitment to pensioners and we think it's a very important one."

Hunt said that because of his party's policies, pensioners are better off now than they were under Labour, and the triple lock system his party introduced is responsible for that.

"[Pensioners] are less likely to be in poverty... Unlike adults of working age, pensioners can't work, they've retired, and so we need to respect that."

You can watch his full comments below.

Laura turns finally to the so-called "triple lock" system for increasing state pensions.

"Yes or no - will it be in the Labour manifesto?" she asks.

Dodds replies by saying "we'll set out those plans" in detail but adds she doesn't want them to be threatened by "that £46 billion black hole that unfortunately Jeremy Hunt has threatened" with his proposed National Insurance changes.

"We cannot just walk away from the need to make work pay," Dodds says, when asked by Laura about when businesses reject to hire people because it will cost more money.

"We need to make sure living standards and economic growth are on a far stronger fitting than they've been over the last 14 years," Dodds answers and then adds:

Anneliese Dodds is next asked what she believes the differences are between Labour and the Tories.

Dodds says we've had 14 years of broken promises under the Conservatives' rule, and adds that we're seeing living standards declining.

Dodds says Labour would be focused on "economic stability", and says her party would ensure investment in the UK.

Dodds then adds that Labour would focus "on reform", to make work pay and change planning to get Britain building again.

Laura continues to press Dodds about Labour's policies around Waspi women, asking whether Labour leader Keir Starmer is going to ditch his promises made, like, Laura suggests, he has in the past.

Dodds redirects by drawing attention to the Liz Truss mini budget, which she says "blew up our economy" and claims that people are still paying for that "economic mismanagement".

"Unfortunately, the general public didn't support the manifesto Labour set out in 2019, therefore we need to ensure that every promise we make needs to be fully funded, fully set out and we have to make sure that women are treated with respect."

Laura starts by saying she wants to talk about the differences between the Conservatives' and Labour's economic proposals.

She asks Anneliese Dodds if she still believes the Waspi women - Women Against State Pension Inequality - should be compensated?

Dodds says unfortunately we lost the last general election and circumstances have changed dramatically since then.

However, she adds, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't see a very strong focus from government on what happened with the Waspi women.

"Above all, we need to learn the lessons of what's happened with this debacle," she says.

Labour party chair Anneliese Dodds is Laura's next guest today.

Stick with us as we take you through the key moments from her interview.

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Cox replies by saying “it depends what you mean by celebrities” and whether they are “people who’ve earned their spurs as actors”.

“I’ve done a fair amount over the years… and so has she,” he says, adding “I’ve been doing this for 60 years”.

Clarkson also responds by saying “what if they’re really capable?”

She adds “you see them do Shakespeare for the first time, and it’s illuminating”.

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Finally, Laura puts the question to the pair of actors — who have starred in both highly acclaimed television series and films — if it’s fair for hugely famous celebrities to be "dropped in" to theatres in order to sell tickets.

Laura also says some people don’t have “£300 to see Sarah-Jessica Parker” and adds that director Jeremy O. Harris has criticised the casting of celebrities in plays as a “sort of Disneyfication”.

Image source, .

Given the play’s darker themes, Laura has also just brought up some of the recent comments from actor Ralph Fiennes, who recently said how he’d like to see trigger warnings removed from productions in order to “shock” audiences.

The West End stars both seem to agree with this take, saying they believe plays like the one they’re starring in should continue to “test” and “involve” audiences.

On theatre-going manners, an issue that’s become a flashpoint in the post-pandemic era, Cox jokingly suggests that those behaving poorly should go the way of the dodo, while Clarkson offers a more gentle response, saying: “I have a feeling if you were paying money to come see this enormous play, you're coming for the true experience; I want to believe that people coming want to see this play.”

We’ve just been hearing from Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson, who are the stars of the new West End production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

The pair begin their conversation with Laura by discussing how demanding it was to portray such troubled characters from the American playwright’s Pulitzer-winning play, noting how each of their roles has to confront trauma, addiction, love and forgiveness.

Or, as Cox surmised: “Well, it’s about dysfunctional families.”

Cox highlights how the play itself was a rather personal one for the famed American playwright, as it’s widely believed that the content it explores was based on O’Neill’s own life, and it proved to be a personal struggle for both actors.

“He was in a lot of pain when he wrote the play,” says Cox, adding that he’s read that O’Neill’s wife would sometime find him “weeping” after writing.

Clarkson jests that while the pair have been in rehearsals for the show, they too haven’t shied away from their emotions. “I cried yesterday for about eight hours,” she says, noting that there was a one-hour break at lunch.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says that the Conservatives would commit to keeping the so-called "triple lock" system for increasing state pensions if they win the election.

"I can confirm it will be, yes," Hunt says when Laura asks if the triple-lock would be in the Conservatives' election manifesto.

The pension triple lock is a government promise to raise publicly funded pensions by the average wage growth, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest.

"Because of the triple lock that we introduced, they (pensioners) are less likely to be in poverty... Unlike adults of working age, pensioners can't work, they've retired, and so we need to respect that," he says.

"But the second thing I would say is that is an expensive commitment, and you can only make that commitment if you're confident that you're going to deliver the economic growth that's going to pay for it.

Read more about the triple lock below

• State pension and triple lock: What is it worth and when do you get it?

Laura is now turning to the topic of the Horizon Post Office scandal.

The Chancellor is asked if he plans to "leave those huge unpaid bills or can you tell us today if you will actually compensate those?"

He answers: "We have been absolutely clear that we will pay compensation, it is a terrible, terrible scandal. We are changing the law to make it possible."

Laura asks Hunt about the difference between the two main political parties - the Conservatives and Labour.

If the economy does grow and if there's money to spare, what would the Tories' priority be?

The chancellor says his party's priority is to "bring down the tax burden" and says the Tory's will have "a plan for public services".

He adds that we need to run public services "more efficiently".

Hunt is now discussing how his party has added "four million additional jobs since 2010 when Conservatives have been in office."

Laura reminds him that "you've clearly articulated you are open to squeezing the welfare budget," and asks about pensioners.

"When we came to office in 2010, pensioners more likely to be in poverty then other income groups, now they are less likely to be in poverty," Hunt says.