Good morning!

Welcome back to the Politics Hub on Sunday, 6 October.

With party conferences now wrapped up for another year, and the result of the Conservative Party leadership race only weeks away, there is - as ever - plenty to discuss.

Labour is also just days away from delivering its first budget on 30 October, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves has hinted that fiscal rules could be changed to free up spending.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has today suggested that a blood test that could detect 12 cancers at an early stage is among the projects that will benefit from a series of medical tech investments.

Projects looking into AI diagnoses and personalised immunotherapy treatments are also among those that could benefit from public and private sector investment worth £148m.

And at 8.30am, Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips will be live on Sky News, with guests including Science Secretary Peter Kyle and shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell.

Stick with us for the latest political news.

Thank you for joining us in the Politics Hub for live coverage of today in UK politics.

• The prime minister travelled to Liverpool where he delivered remarks announcing up to £22bn of investment in carbon capture and storage over the next 25 years.
• He also took questions from reporters, and said that cabinet ministers do not have to follow his lead and repay money for freebies taken since the election.
• Cabinet minister Ed Miliband revealed that he plans to vote in favour of legalising assisted dying.
• And Sir Ed Davey visited a charity called Stepping Stones, which supports young people with Down Syndrome, and their families, to call for a boost to the carer's allowance.

Join us again on Sunday from 7am for live coverage of politics, as well as our flagship show, Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

In July 2019, Boris Johnson fulfilled a lifelong ambition by becoming leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.

He seemed to secure power for years to come, later that year winning the largest Commons majority achieved by the Conservative Party since Margaret Thatcher.

But by July 2022, it all came crashing down as ministers resigned en masse following the Partygate scandal and his response to the alleged behaviour of one of his ministers.

Two years later, Johnson is telling his version of events in a new book, Unleashed, and is speaking to Sky News.

Join us on Tuesday to watch as the ex-PM faces questions from Wilfred Frost about his premiership.

Watch Sky News on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on the Sky News website and app or on YouTube.

A third UK government charter flight to help British nationals leave Lebanon has departed, the foreign secretary has announced.

The government has been working with commercial airlines to arrange the flights for UK nationals and their dependents as Israel continues its incursion and airstrikes against Hezbollah targets.

Further flights are planned, David Lammy has confirmed, as UK forces remain on standby in case an emergency evacuation operation is required.

The foreign secretary posted on X: "The situation is volatile. Flights are limited but seats are available.

"British nationals who want to leave should register their presence now to receive details on how to request a seat."

Follow the very latest on the crisis in the Middle East in our dedicated live coverage here:

Following a reported incident involving a small boat in the Channel this morning, a group of people thought to be migrants have been brought ashore by a Border Force vessel.

It comes as G7 interior ministers - including Home Secretary Yvette Cooper - meet in Italy to discuss stopping illegal migration.

Sir Keir Starmer says capturing carbon – from industries like the glass factory he visited today – is the technology of the future.

It will keep the jobs and the plants, but the carbon emissions will be stashed underground. What's not to like?

Green campaigners don't like it - they see it as a free pass for polluting industries.

Some climate scientists wrote to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband last week, warning that the technology is "unproven" and has never worked at scale.

It will be nearly the next election before we see carbon captured at the two sites under the £22bn plans, but the 2050 net zero targets are getting closer.

The announcement is also interesting as a message about borrowing for capital investment – amid speculation that Chancellor Rachel Reeves may change the fiscal rules to do more of it.

She has noticeably shifted her pre-budget message towards investment, after weeks of talk of painful cuts and a £22bn black hole.

The prime minister told me that painful decisions, like the winter fuel allowance removal, were necessary to "stabilise the economy" and that more of them are still on the way next month.

He and the chancellor will need to convince households facing these tough decisions that multi-billion-pound investments will pay dividends for them.

Labour's Diane Abbott has said Sir Keir Starmer's decision to hand back £6,000 worth of gifts is "an admission he was doing a wrong thing".

The veteran backbench MP, who has said she doesn't have much of a relationship with her party's leader, accused him of not understanding "how taking freebies looks to ordinary people".

Speaking to our political correspondent Serena Barker-Singh, she said: "He just spent weeks and weeks claiming everything was in the rules, now he's had to give some of it at least back.

"Well, that's an admission he was doing a wrong thing."

'A very wealthy man'

The money given back by Sir Keir covers the cost of things like loans of luxury clothing for his wife, and Taylor Swift tickets.

They are all from since he became prime minister.

Ms Abbott said despite his previous defence of taking freebies, "he'll see from polling the public take a very dim view of this".

Describing Sir Keir as "a very wealthy man", Ms Abbott said the fact the row had coincided with backlash to the winter fuel allowance cut for most pensioners had "upset the public".

And while she said the freebies row is not a case of "corruption", rich donors don't just give gifts "out of altruism".

"At some point they think that politician is gonna listen to them."

Donations are part of politics, Ms Abbott admitted, but not on this scale.

Watch: PM on decision to pay back gifts

While Sir Keir Starmer has been in the North West speaking about the green transition, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has been on a visit in Hampshire.

Sir Ed Davey visited a charity called Stepping Stones, which supports young people with Down Syndrome, and their families.

He is calling for the government to provide more support for unpaid carers - a policy area he says he is deeply passionate about.

Specifically, his party wants ministers to provide a £20 boost in the Carer's Allowance, raising it from £81.90 to £101.90 per week, which would give family carers an additional £1,040 annually.

Here are some photos from Sir Ed's visit this morning...

Sir Keir Starmer's remarks and the Q&A in Liverpool have now concluded.

Scroll down to read what he had to say about investment in carbon capture and storage technology, war in the Middle East, and continuing questions about donations and freebies.

Back to the topic of carbon capture, the prime minister is asked about the supposed problems with the technology, and whether it's right to lock the UK into fossil fuel assets. 

Sir Keir Starmer says the investment in carbon capture is "very important" in relation to the government's climate obligations 

"We've got the skills and the jobs and the potential to get ahead on carbon capture," he adds. 

"That is a good thing in its own right." 

He says it is a chance to prove that the UK has a "government of change" and that it has turned its back on decline.