Grant Shapps and Wes Streeting to face Laura Kuenssberg – BBC News

Labour is giving a bit more detail about how the pledge they recently made to add 40,000 NHS appointments a week will be delivered.

The party says it will set up groups containing about five hospitals where waiting lists and staff will be pooled and resources will be shared, allowing them to operate in evenings and on weekends.

“Labour will invest £1.1 billion in the policy, to pay staff extra for out of hours working,” reads a Labour statement.

“The party expects to roll out the plans and reach 40,000 extra operations, scans, and appointments a week well within the first year of a Labour government.”

Read what Labour has said previously about shared waiting lists here.

The Conservatives have dismissed the plan, saying it is the “same old Labour”.

“Their pledges for the NHS are completely unfunded and alongside all their other spending commitments, would cost every working household £2,094 in higher taxes, taking the country back to square one,” says Conservative Party Chairman Richard Holden

The 43-year-old was a long-time ally of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and will be appearing on today’s programme.

In March this year – just weeks after Navalny suddenly died in a Russian prison colony – Volkov said his arm had been broken in an attack outside his home in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

Lithuanian intelligence said the attack was likely “Russian organised”. Two Polish citizens were accused of carrying out the assault, and later three people were arrested over the attack.

Poland’s prime minister said the person who allegedly ordered the attack was “a Belarusian working for the Russians”.

At the time of the attack, Volkov said the attack was “an obvious, typical, gangster greeting from Putin, from bandit St Petersburg” – but gave no more details.

He was briefly hospitalised after the attack, and has lived outside Russia for years.

• Read the full story here

According to The Sunday Times, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is getting ready to unveil a compensation package of at least £10bn for those affected by the infected blood scandal.

The report says Hunt is fulfilling a promise to his friend Mike Dorricott – a father of two who was among thousands of people to be given infusions of contaminated blood. He died in 2015.

“I think this is the worst scandal of my lifetime and the worst I’ve ever come across in my political career,” says Hunt.

An official announcement from the government is expected soon, possibly in the week ahead.

Read more about the infected blood scandal here.

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As always, we’ll first hear from the panel, who’ll be giving their takes on some of the week’s biggest stories.

They’ll also be picking apart the answers Laura’s guests give in their interviews. Here’s today’s studio panellists:

• Piers Morgan– the journalist and presenter’s online show Piers Morgan Uncensoredhas 2.8 million YouTube subscribers
• Mikaela Loach – a climate justice activist who last year wrote a book called It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World
• David Ross– the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse and former Conservative Party donor. In 2020, he was in the limelight when it emerged that he had paid £15,000 for then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take a Caribbean holiday, according to the MPs’ register of interests

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting may well be asked about the imminent Infected Blood Inquiry report, which we’re expecting to be published tomorrow. Details of the scandal have been across headlines all week in anticipation of the report.

The chair of the inquiry is also due to speak at Westminster at about 14:00 BST on Monday.

The inquiry follows more than 30,000 people in the UK being infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. It has been called the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history.

Announced in 2017 after years of campaigning from victims, the inquiry has been led by former judge Sir Brian Langstaff.

A number of individuals have given evidence, including former pupils at a specialist boarding school, Treloar’s College, where dozens of young haemophiliacs were infected with HIV.

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Today’s guest, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, made headlines earlier this week when he spoke about up to six amphibious warships planned for the Royal Marines.

These ships would help fight the “conflicts of the future”, he said. Speaking to the BBC, Shapps said the ships would be “more flexible” and capable of carrying out different tasks.

He added that the investment was only possible because of the government’s decision to increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income.

The government had previously said it would be building the new ships. However, Shapps told the BBC’s Today programme that at that time there was not the “means to actually do it”.

“Today, we are able to bring those plans to fruition,” he said. Read more on this story here.

As always, you’ll be able to watch today’s show live at 09:00 BST without leaving this page – just tap the Play button 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 – and we’ll bring you live text updates, clips, reaction and analysis right here.

Stay tuned.

As we’ve already said, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is on the programme today, representing the government.

Joining him is Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said this week that, if in power, his government would provide 40,000 appointments and operations per week to help tackle NHS waiting lists – so we’ll see if Streeting’s asked about that.

Leonid Volkov, former chief of staff to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, will also be making an appearance on the show.

In March, Volkov said his arm was broken in an attack outside his home in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

Navalny himself falsesuddenly died in a Russian prison in February.

Monday saw Prime Minister Rishi Sunak give a pre-election speech, while the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, has met newly-elected Labour mayors about driving economic growth across the country.

Sunak’s speech leant heavily on national security and technology, predicting that while the next few years would be “dangerous,” they could also be “transformational” for the UK.

Later in the week, Starmer unveiled six pledges he said would be priorities for Labour were the party to win a general election.

The promises include delivering “economic stability,” providing 40,000 more hospital appointments a week and recruiting 6,500 teachers.

Welcome and thanks for joining us as we build up to another programme packed full of political drama with today’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Another week’s passed and we’re edging closer to an upcoming general election later this year.

Since last week’s programme, both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer have been offering pre-election pitches.

The PM has claimed the Conservatives would offer the British public “a secure future”, while Starmer has outlined Labour’s six “first steps” if it were to win the election.

We’re expecting to hear more on this from the guests and panel, especially today’s interviewees Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.

The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navlany’s former chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, has also been speaking to Laura and will be sharing his insights about Putin and the situation in Russia.

The show begins, as usual, at 09:00 BST and you can follow the latest updates, reactions and analysis here.

You can also watch live by tapping the Play button at the top of this page.