Ione Wells
Political correspondent

Today marks a quieter day on the election campaign trail.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are likely doing some prepping for their first head-to-head election debate on Tuesday night.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is out and about though - promoting Labour’s policy to cut net migration by training up more UK workers to fill skills gaps, and banning companies that pay exploitative wages from hiring foreign workers.

The SNP are also launching their campaign in Glasgow, where the leader John Swinney is likely to stress their view that a vote for the SNP is a vote for independence and ‘putting Scotland’s interests first'.

Image source, PA Media

Here's a quick round up of what we learned on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg today:

• Health Secretary Victoria Atkins was quizzed on the government's record on waiting lists in England, social care and previous promises around building new hospitals
• Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper would not commit to a specific target on bringing net migration down but said the party is committed to securing a significant drop in numbers
• Adrian Ramsay, the co-leader of the Green Party, said he wanted to see more investment in building a greener economy and was pressed on the party's rationing policy
• Deputy leader of the Lib Dems Daisy Cooper said the public are crying out for practical solutions to the UK's problems and not just campaign pledges

Stay with us through the rest of the day as we bring you the latest from the campaign trail.

Earlier we heard from Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay, who was pressed on the party's positioning on "rationing".

The party's website says it would "use rationing to reduce the amounts of meat and dairy food consumed in the UK" if it formed a government.

However, Ramsay told the programme that rationing is not set to be in the Green manifesto for this election.

You can hear Ramsay's answer in the clip below.

During one of our panel discussions this morning, Laura Kuenssberg asked our guests what viewers should be looking out for on Tuesday, when the first head-to-head debate between Sunak and Starmer will take place on ITV.

Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, said these debates are often the moment when members of the public tune in to the campaign.

She says: "I think in this election more than any other it's not just going to be about what are you offering - but how are you going to deliver it?

"What people right across the country can see is that they are paying their taxes - a huge amount in tax... public services are on their knees, they can't see a GP, can't see a dentist."

BBC fact checkers have been interrogating some of the claims made by politicians on this morning's programme.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said one of the reasons why waiting lists have gone up since 2010 is because demand on the NHS is increasing, in part because “we’re living longer”.

Over the long term, life expectancy has gone up but Office for National Statistics figures show it is actually back at the same level as 2010 for women and slightly below the 2010 level for men.

Yvette Cooper said the number of engineering apprenticeships had halved but that claim is based on stats which don’t really give the full picture.

Engineering UK - which represents the industry - says the fall in apprenticeships since 2017 is a quarter.

And if you look at the number in all engineering-related subjects, it's down by considerably less.

Now to matters across the pond, where President Joe Biden said it was "reckless" for his predecessor Donald Trump to call his trial rigged.

In a historic decision this week, Trump - who is seeking to return to the White House - was found guilty of falsifying business records, becoming the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.

Asked for evidence there was political interference in the trial, Trump's lawyer Alina Habba said the process was "flawed in itself".

Pressed again for evidence, she told the BBC: "This was brought not once, but twice. The facts never change, this was an eight year old case.

"This was brought after president Trump decided he was running for office."

Habba then goes on to say Trump has raised millions of dollars for his campaign and the support is "bigger" than ever.

Image source, PA Media

Let's briefly take you back to the start of the show when Labour's Baroness Chakrabarti, a friend of Diane Abbott, was asked about the veteran MP's selection saga this week.

First, Baroness Chakrabarti criticises the "Westminster bubble game" and in particular what she describes as "unauthorised briefings by overgrown schoolboys in suits".

"I hope she will take some time to consider what she wants to do," Baroness Chakrabarti replies.

"That is what I have suggested to her as her friend."

Ramsay is then pushed on allegations of antisemitism against some Green Party candidates.

He says there is an investigation under way and the party takes allegations of this nature seriously.

Laura asks Ramsay if the Greens will be barring candidates, to which he says there are three candidates who were selected "who are now no longer going forward".

"I understand there is still a small number still being looked at," he says.

Ramsay also says his party hopes to send four MPs to Westminster in this election - adding they have a "fantastic chance of winning" the constituencies of Bristol Central, Waveney Valley, North Herefordshire and Brighton Pavilion.

Ramsay is pressed again on the type of economy that the Greens would want to oversee, with Laura picking up on suggestions that the party does not believe the economy should continue growing.

But Ramsay says that gross domestic product (GDP) - a common measure of economic growth which totals everything produced and consumed in an economy over a period of time - is a "blunt instrument".

He says there are better measures that can give us more insight into how an economy is performing - including measures on jobs, health, happiness or public services.

Next up is the first the programme's leader interviews and joining her on set is the co-leader of the Green Party, Adrian Ramsay.

He says he wants to see investment in a greener economy as there are job opportunities in renewable energy, transport and insulating homes.

Ramsay says the Greens are "the only party being honest" that in order to fix the NHS then they are going to "have to ask the richest in society and the millionaires to pay modestly more in tax".

Andy Street, who lost his role as mayor of the West Midlands in May's local elections, made the decision this week not to stand as an MP.

He says even in his loss there was a message about how the Conservatives can win.

Laura asks if it is a warning.

"Of course it is," Street replies, adding whether the Tories win or lose the election, the party has to appeal to the centre ground.

We briefly turn to our panel to discuss the last week of campaigning.

Former West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, who lost out to Labour at the local elections, suggests that Jeremy Hunt won the week because he was setting the tax and spend agenda, with Labour following his lead.

Baroness Chakrabarti, the Labour peer, says it was her friend Diane Abbott, as well as "common decency".

Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Lib Dems - talking about that paddle-boarding picture of Sir Ed Davey - says her party leader won the week because he had been having a lot of fun.

"We take our politics very seriously, but we don't take ourselves that seriously," she says.

Image source, PA Media

Finally, Atkins is pressed on a previous pledge by Johnson to deliver 40 new hospitals during the 2019 general election campaign.

The National Audit Office has found that only 11 of those could be deemed "new hospitals" and just a handful have opened. She is asked why voters would believe any new promises on the NHS if others have not materialised.

Atkins points out that during the pandemic, both the NHS and construction industry were severely affected.

She says construction restarted as soon as was possible and that six hospitals are now open to patients. The government is aiming for two more hospitals to be open by the end of the financial year.

And that's the end of our interview with the health secretary this morning.

Turning to the topic of social care, Laura brings up a tweet from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said in 2019: "You can't fix the NHS without fixing social care."

Laura lists off the promises of successive prime ministers which she says have not been met and then asks Atkins if the Conservatives have a plan to fix it.

Atkins says: "We already have a 10 year plan to improve and provide the social care for our grandparents to have."

Laura picks up again to ask Atkins: "Do you accept hand on heart that after 14 years, not tackling the social care system has been a failure?"

Atkins says there "is a change in society the government is trying to respond to through a range of measures" including "the construction of 50 new diagnostic centres".

The health secretary is asked about waiting lists in England.

Atkins says "we know how hard" the pandemic hit the NHS - making particular reference to the number of cancer referrals.

"We have seen waiting lists fall by 200,000 since I've become health secretary", she adds.

Atkins says the demand on the NHS is increasing at a rate health professionals would have been "surprised" by.

Next up to join Laura is Conservative Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, who begins by saying the government wants to build new GP practices and "bring healthcare closer to our communities".

Laura says over 450 GPs have been shut since 2013, funding for pharmacies is down as she asks if the Tories are "unpicking mistakes the Tories have already made"?

Atkins says there are more GPs working in the NHS than there were in 2019.

She continues: "We have seen record numbers working across primary care."

Moving onto Diane Abbott, Cooper says the issues around her selection have now been "resolved" and she is "glad" they have been.

Cooper says she doesn't know what internal Labour processes have taken place in relation to the case.

"It isn't something for the shadow cabinet to be involved in," Cooper says.

Asked whether Abbott should stand again for Labour, Cooper say: "It has to be Diane's decision."

She adds: "Diane continues to be an important person in the Labour party."

Finishing up with the migration topic, Cooper is asked how quickly she would end the practice of housing asylum seekers in private hotels.

Cooper says: "We will still need to look at the crisis we inherit... It will take around a year to end asylum hotel use.

"We need to start saving money straight away."