Laura asks Hunt about the upcoming general election and says the economy is likely to be at the top of the list of talking points.

She points out similarities in recent statements on the economy between the chancellor and his counterpart - Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Hunt says he "likes and respects Rachel Reeves" but says there are some "very profound differences" between the two.

He continues by saying we need to confront difficult choices and adds he doesn't believe Reeves has done so.

Controlling migration, welfare reform and making work pay are some of the areas he mentions.

Hunt says that that the main reason people vote for Conservatives is that "they trust us to take tough and difficult decisions to get the economy back on track".

"In the last three years, we had a pandemic, energy shock and what they have seen from this government is we have taken really difficult decisions. I had to take taxes up and cut back public spending plans. We can now see they are bearing fruit," Hunt says.

Hunt's next asked by Laura if he really thinks "after everything that's happened, after the Liz Truss market meltdown" that the government should be "boasting about achievement".

The chancellor replies by saying we're trying to do things that "help people up and down the country".

He says "you talk about living standards" but argues they've gone up since 2010 for the average family.

Hunt however admits that a "pandemic and energy crisis" mean that living standards have taken a hit.

The UK is "not out of the woods" yet, he says, but we are making progress.

Laura reminds Hunt that a member of the government has said the cost of living crisis has ended, but Chancellor himself said that £100,000 is not a great salary. And she asks "Aren't you afraid of sounding like you are in a parallel universe?"

Hunt says that he was speaking to a specific constituent when he said that. When asked that if "he feels completely out of touch" as in his own area, Surrey, the average salary is less than half of that, Hunt says he accepts even with higher salaries people feel under pressure.

"Average salary in the country on £35,000 and we reduced their national interest contribution. My commitment is for actually people with lower salaries."

The Chancellor's Laura's next guest and he starts by sending his regards to the Royal Family and says we all "admire their incredible stoicism".

Harverson then speaks about the mainstream media making things worse and says what frustrates him is that the Royal Family are a family at the end of the day.

He continues by saying they need time as a couple and time as a family.

Harverson says he's absolutely convinced "if we hadn't had all the madness on social media" and the Mother's Day photo mistake, the Royal Family still would've shared the news in the way they did.

Laura starts her interviews with Patrick Harverson, a public relations executive who from 2004 to 2013 worked in the Royal Household as the communications secretary to the now King Charles, by asking "how do you think they are coping?", mentioning both Prince William and the Princess of Wales.

Harverson answers by saying "I think better than many people realize" and gives more information about Kate:

"When I first met her when she was being handed by the press, she always had this great strength and never wanted to make a fuss. I am confident as a couple and individually they will get through this."

Laura starts off by asking Jeremy Hunt and Anneliese Dodds if they think political TV satire The Thick of It - created by one of today's panellists, the writer and director Armando Iannucci - is close to reality.

Hunt replies by saying "unfortunately... there are plenty of moments where we can all say it's all too true".

She then turns to more serious matters and asks fellow panellistVictoria Newton, the Sun's editor,about this week's revelations about Catherine, Princess of Wales' health.

Newton says for Catherine, "the priority for her was always her children".

Iannuccireplies by saying "conspiracy theories" have filled "the vacuum created by our media".

Imran Ahmed, from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, is the third panellist today.

As the programme is now underway, let's join Laura by taking a quick tour of this morning's newspapers’ headlines.

The Sunday Express writes of "a nation touched" by the "courage and dignity" of Catherine, Princess of Wales, in revealing her cancer diagnosis to the world.

Catherine also dominates the front page of The Sunday Times which says her announcement of the diagnosis was worded so as to "reassure" the nation.

It also says that the royal couple wants the social media giants to reform after many “unfounded stories about the couple” were spread over the past few weeks.

A source close to William and Kate said “There is so much misinformation out there.

She is in a position to do something about it.”

The Sunday Telegraph focuses on the royal couple, quoting the Prince of Wales as saying he is "extremely proud" of his wife's "courage and strength".

It also reports the Moscow attack but chooses to lead on a warning to the Kremlin from an unnamed "senior Whitehall security source" that it should not use the event as an "excuse" to "intensify its war on Ukraine".

I, on the other hand, leads with the Moscow attack, where four suspects have been arrested after 133 people were killed.

And we’re live! In case you missed our earlier post, you can tune into the programme by hitting the Play button at the top of this page or by navigating to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on either BBC One or BBC iPlayer.

Don’t leave this page though, as we’ll be bringing in live updates, analysis, clips and all sorts more.

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg gets underway at 09:00 GMT and the programme can be entirely streamed on this page – without navigating away. Simply hit the Play button at the top of this page

Image source, PA Media

Alongside the guests on this morning’s programme who we’ve just told you about, Laura will also be joined in the studio by an insightful group of panellists. This week the panel includes:

• Writer and director Armando Iannucci, known for his work on the political satire The Thick of It and the film that followed, In the Loop
• Sir Liam Fox, who is the Conservative MP for North Somerset
• and Dame Rachel De Souza, who is the Children's Commissioner for England

Image source, Reuters

As mentioned earlier, we’re expecting to hear from the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this morning when he joins Laura Kuenssberg in the studio. He’ll be fielding questions after what was a rather eventful economic week — with updated figures on both interest rates and inflation figures in the UK.

Anneliese Dodds will also be joining Laura andwill no doubt want to give her thoughts on this week’s economic news.As you’ll recall, prior to serving as Labour party chair she was the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.

We’ll also be getting to hear from Patrick -“Paddy” - Harverson, a public relations executive and former journalist who from 2004 to 2013 worked in the Royal Household as the communications secretary to the then-Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, as well as working as the spokesman for the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

And then, later on in the programme, we’ll be hearing from Scottish actor Brian Cox and American actress Patricia Clarkson who are currently starring in the West End production of a Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Image source, Reuters

On Friday, the Princess of Wales revealed in a video message that she had begun cancer treatment.

Yesterday, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said that the Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales, are "enormously touched by the kind messages" they have received.

The message ended with how the couple is “grateful for the understanding of their request for privacy at this time."

According to our royal correspondents, the statement is the last we will hear from the prince and princess for a while; and it is a message that is both a thank you and a polite warning - with the couple saying the public side of this diagnosis is over and they want to be left alone.

It is also understood that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - Prince Harry and Meghan - have reached out to Prince William and Catherine following the announcement of the princess's cancer diagnosis.

Kensington Palace has not commented, but the contact is understood to have been made privately.

King Charles III was diagnosed with cancer in early February.

Prince Harry flew to London to see his father shortly after the diagnosis.

In an interview afterwards with ABC News, Harry said families could be brought closer together by such health concerns.

Alongside the Bank of England’s update on interest rates, in the past week we have also got updated figures on the rate of inflation, which fell to its lowest level in almost two and a half years last month - falling to 3.4% from 4%.

February's drop means the cost of living is rising at its slowest pace since September 2021 - a change that was largely driven by easing prices with food and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as eating out prices.

Alcohol, tobacco, clothing and footwear prices also eased, while housing and fuel prices continued to rise rapidly.

One of the key factors driving up housing costs was the average price of renting property privately, which jumped by 9% in the year to February 2024, up from 8.5% in the previous 12 months. This is the biggest annual percentage change since measurements began in January 2015.

Inflation, the rate at which prices rise over time, has been gradually falling since it hit 11.1% in October 2022 - its highest rate for 40 years.

As we’ve been discussing, this week was an action-packed one when it came to the country’s financial outlook.

One of the major developments from mid-week was the Bank of England's interest rate announcement, when it decided to keep interest rates held at 5.25% - leaving them unchanged for the fifth time in a row.

What this means for people is that the cost of borrowing will remain at its highest level for 16 years. The Bank’s Governor Andrew Bailey said at the time of the announcement that it’s “not yet” time to make interest ratecuts, but added that he believes “we are on the way” to cuts.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that the Bank’s decision, alongside this week’s news that there’d been a drop in inflation, shows the economy "has turned a corner".

The Bank has also said that it expects inflation to fall slightly below 2% by the summer, but warns that the conflict in the Middle East and disruption to one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in the Red Sea poses "material risks" to prices surging again.

• Read our full story about the announcement here

Good morning and welcome to our live page coverage of this week’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

This morning Laura will be sitting down with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who returns to the red seat just weeks after joining the programme ahead of delivering the Budget at the beginning of the month.

The economy will likely remain front and centre this morning, as this week we saw the Bank of England decide to holds interest rates at 5.25% for the fifth time in a row.

The latest figures from this week also showed a drop in the UK inflation rate to 3.4% — its lowest level in almost two and a half years.

For his part, the prime minister has told the BBC that he believes this will be the year the economy “bounces back”. But we’ll see what Laura and her guests have to say about all that when the programme begins at 09:00 GMT.

Please stick with us here as we bring you all the freshest lines. And remember that you can also watch the show live on BBC One and iPlayer, as well as by pressing Play at the top of this page.