Grant Shapps and Wes Streeting face Laura Kuenssberg

The show might have finished for this Sunday but stay with us as we bring you the latest analysis and reactions.

Let’s recap the key moments from this week’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg:

• Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has stressed the need for Ukraine’s allies to not take their “eye off the ball” again when it comes to aid and says the UK does not want direct conflict with Russia

• Shapps has said families have been “let down” over decades by the infected blood scandal

• The defence secretary was also asked about reports in the Sunday Times saying the chancellor is getting ready to announce more than £10bn in compensation for those affected by the infected blood scandal, but Shapps says he’s not in a position to discuss further

• Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has also been on the programme and expressed confidence in Labour’s plan to cut down NHS waiting lists by pooling hospital staff and resources

• Also questioned over the infected blood scandal, Streeting says a Labour government would match the compensation levels recommended in a soon-to-be-released report and says “all parties” will have to take some “very heavy criticism”

• We also heard from Leonid Volkov, a former aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who says he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is “bluffing” over the country’s recent advances in Ukraine

• Journalist Piers Morgan, who was one of today’s panellists, was pressed by Laura over phone hacking allegations. He denied knowing that voice mails were being hacked when he was the editor the Daily Mirror newspaper

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The programme has now finished for the week but before it ended Laura asked the panel about the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer, which tells the story of a woman called Martha stalking the comedian Richard Gadd.

Journalist Piers Morgan references his recent interview with Fiona Harvey on Piers Morgan Uncensored. Harvey has identified herself as the woman portrayed as Martha the stalker in the series – which neither Netflix nor Richard Gadd have confirmed.

Piers criticises the series for saying it’s a true story after Harvey told him she has not been convicted of stalking and denied stalking Gadd.

He questions if there has been failure of duty of care over how the story was told on screen, which includes using real posts from Fiona’s social media accounts.

• You can read more about this story on Baby Reindeer here.

Volkov urges Western political leaders to send more arms to Ukraine – and not to consider negotiation with Russia.

He says: “Putin will not stop the war ever and every ceasefire, negotiation will only be used by him to produce more weapons, to recruit more soldiers… it doesn’t make any sense to negotiate.”

Volkov adds that there has to be “military pressure, economic pressure, political pressure, from inside, from outside” on Russia president.

Laura turns to Ukraine and asks Volkov if he’s worried about reports of recent Russian advances in the conflict.

He says he doesn’t think that Putin’s victory is feasible and says he believes the Russian president is aware that the vast majority of Russians don’t support the war and want it to stop.

Volkov says Putin is “bluffing in a way” and trying to “present himself as much stronger than he is”.

He believes Putin’s hopeful it will be enough to force Ukraine and its Western allies to enter some negotiations.

“Don’t get bluffed,” Volkov adds.

Asked whether he now sees Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, as the leader of the opposition movement, Volkov says “everybody does”.

He tells the programme Yulia always acted as “a very close political adviser to Alexei” and is a “very strong personality and a charismatic leader”.

But he says she “never wanted to be in this public role”.

Volkov says “it’s very clear and natural” for Navalny’s organisation that “our task in this situation is just to support Yulia and everything that she does, and that is what we are doing now”.

Volkov says the late opposition leader dreamed of defeating Putin in order to build a “beautiful Russia of the future”.

He tells the programme that Navalny asked his supporters “never to give up and to continue our war”.

Volkov also says that building Navalny’s vision of Russia is “the only practical way to preserve his legacy” and to make “his ultimate sacrifice not to be in vain”.

Volkov pays tribute to his “close friend” Navalny by describing him as a “great guy”, “inspiring personality” and “true hero”.

He also says the late Russian opposition leader was a “great and very capable political leader”.

“There is no substitution for him,” Volkov says, and adds that the loss “will always be just like an open wound in our hearts”.

Volkov continues by saying the attack on him was done to send a “message”.

He says his attackers were saying “we know where you live, we can kill you, we are after you”.

But Volkov says it was also confirmation that the efforts of the Navalny foundation have been noticed and were proving a “major threat”.

Volkov adds that he does not fear for his life or his family’s life, as the risks of opposing Putin were always clear.

“We always knew we are fighting against a crazy fascist dictator who doesn’t recognise any red lines” or borders, he says.

But he says he is a bit surprised the attack on him in Lithuania has become such a focus as Putin “left all red lines behind many years ago… he doesn’t recognise any rules or borders”.

We are now hearing from Leonid Volkov, who is the former chief of staff for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navlany.

Laura starts by asking Volkov about his recollections of being assaulted outside his Lithuanian home in March – an incident which he said broke his arm and was a “gangster greeting from Putin”.

Volkov says he is “basically fine”, before adding he has fully recovered physically and “never had any problem mentally”.

He adds that he has not had any flashbacks, probably because “he was too traumatised” by Navalny’s death, which has “overshadowed everything else”.

Journalist Piers Morgan, who is on the panel today, is asked whether he knew that voice mails were being hacked when he was the editor the Daily Mirror newspaper.

Morgan replies: “no, and I’ve said this consistently for 20 years”.

He adds he’s not going to say anything more about it except to point out that only one story was found that may or may not have been linked to phone hacking.

“I’m sorry, that’s not enough,” Morgan says.

“There is no evidence that I ever knew about phone hacking,” he adds.

Laura asks a final question to Streeting about former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who received £5,000 donation from a group called We Deserve Better.

The group supports individual socialist candidates standing as MPs against Labour in some seats. The donation was revealed in the MPs’ register of interests.

Corbyn is not a Labour MP at the moment but he is still a member of the Labour party. Is receiving that donation acceptable, Laura asks?

Streeting replies “no I don’t think it is, although frankly what Jeremy Corbyn does is no concern to me any longer.”

The shadow health secretary goes on to say Corbyn “won’t be in parliament after the next general election and we have turned the page on that total failure in our history”.

The shadow health secretary is then asked about the infected blood scandal report that’s due out tomorrow and whether Labour is “committed to the most generous compensation package”.

He suggests that Labour, if the party wins the next general election, would match the compensation that is recommended in the report.

Wes Streeting is now asked why Labour thinks it can do a better job than the current government in Wales, where health services are also seriously stretched.

“Right across the UK, every part of the NHS is in crisis,” says Streeting.

He asks voters to look back on Labour’s track record when it comes to waiting lists.

“I’m convinced a Labour government in Westminster won’t just deliver for the NHS in England; we’ll create a rising tide that lifts all ships across the UK”, the shadow health secretary adds.

Laura says the previous Labour government used the private sector a lot – how much would a future Labour government use them to help the NHS?

Streeting replies by saying the private sector tell us they can do more and we are going to have to work in partnership.

We are talking to the private sector already and we are thinking creatively, he says.

For example, Streeting says Labour is announcing a partnership
with Nuffield Health to deliver 4,000 appointments for NHS staff through their
joint pain programme. This would help address one of the reasons NHS staff are off sick and
this will help get them off waiting lists, he adds.

Next, Streeting is asked about staff cuts at hospitals after 11 hospital trusts in Yorkshire identified they had to save £350m from their combined budgets.

Laura asks if he would tell trusts not to cut clinical roles if he becomes health secretary.

Streeting replies: “Of course we don’t want to see people getting rid of doctors and nurses.”

He adds that Laura’s question “underlines just how big the challenge is going to be” if Labour win the next general election.

It is now the Labour shadow health secretary’s turn to be questioned.

Laura asks Wes Streeting about Labour’s pledge to help cut down on NHS waiting lists by pooling hospital resources.

“The reason we know this will work is that it’s currently being done in a small number of hospitals,” says Streeting.

“We want to see this available to patients rights across the country,” he adds.

Streeting says the £1.1bn required to make the scheme work will be linked to reforming hospital systems.

The next question to the defence secretary is about the infected blood scandal, which is the subject of a key report being published tomorrow.

Can he commit to £10bn in compensation being paid in full, Laura asks.

Schapps replies that it is heart-breaking but he is not in a position to talk about the compensation.

Laura asks Shapps about whether the temporary pier in the coast of Gaza being used to deliver aid is enough to support the people of Gaza.

He says: ” Of course it’s not enough”.

Shapps adds that it’s “just another way of getting aid in”.

“We are helping to organise the dispatch of that from Cyprus… so we’re assisting with getting that aid onto the land in Gaza,” he adds.

The defence secretary is now asked about Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s recent comments that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would be a danger to the country, if Labour were to win a general election, by not committing to the same levels of defence spending as the Conservatives.

Shapps says “people will quite rightly question why that is the case”.

Laura asks whether Sunak is himself a danger, given that the new target of spending 2.5% of the budget on defence is relatively new.

Shapps replies that the Conservatives have been building up to the target.