Broadcast timeline
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
Sunday 18 October 2026 · 09:00 BST · 1h · 6 stories · 15 annotated moments · 57 of 60 min on news stories (95%)
Broadcast overview
An AI-generated overview based on this broadcast's transcript.
The programme first reported violence and protests in France, including a bell tower collapsing in Limoges after the town hall was set on fire, clashes in Paris where riot police used tear gas and water cannon, ransacked shops, a restaurant set on fire and more than 1,000 arrests. In the newspaper review it noted a Sunday Times report that five SAS soldiers had been arrested for murder after operations in Syria and cleared after a three-year investigation, and an Observer lead on unequal prospects for children in different parts of the country. The panel discussed the French unrest in relation to living costs, public spending and opportunities for younger people.
It then focused on NHS corridor care. Sixteen health groups wrote demanding urgent action, and the programme reported about 3,000 patients a day being treated in corridors or crowded waiting rooms. It heard from the parents of two-year-old Finley Roberts, who died in July 2024 after hours of treatment in a north London hospital corridor; an inquest found he would have had a chance of surviving with the right care. Health Secretary Yvette Cooper apologised, said no child or patient should be treated in a corridor, and announced 14 urgent treatment centres, another 25 to open for winter and £140m, plus new data collection on children and urgent NHS standards aimed at eliminating corridor care for children as a priority. The interview also covered rising waiting-list case numbers, the 18-week target, and NHS staff being sacked over inappropriate access to medical records.
The programme later interviewed Green Party leader Zack Polanski after its conference passed a motion saying Zionism is racist and after the party did not win the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Polanski said he regarded the practical application of Zionism as racist, said he did not think any state has a right to exist under international law, and said he disagreed with the party's policy of a single Palestinian state but would not seek to overturn the conference decision before 2028. In the panel, Reform UK was questioned over an ITV undercover investigation in which councillors and candidates were reported to have made racist comments; Nadine Dorries said the remarks were abhorrent and that vetting had been outsourced. The programme also covered an official review finding a risk of over-diagnosis alongside real mental distress among young people, and Shadow Welfare Secretary Helen Whately's call for action on youth unemployment, including halving national insurance for 21- to 24-year-olds.
On air
People and organisations this broadcast put on air during its news coverage. The channel's own presenters and reporters are not listed. Names as transcribed.
- 6:52
Yvette Cooper, Health Secretary
- 6:58
Royal College of Nursing, health group
- 6:58
Age UK, health group
- 6:58
Marie Curie, health group
- 12:09
Whittington Hospital, hospital
- 23:59
Zach Polanski, Green Party leader
- 54:25
Helen Whately, Shadow Health Secretary
- 1:39
- 4:20
Charged quote Macron calls for calm amid nationwide French protests
it's just unacceptable, and France cannot arrest its way out of this. There are fundamental problems, such as a lack of public spending, huge amounts of money spent on waves of inward immigration coming into France. It's how they are spending the money that they do have, and it's not in a way that's benefiting those who are at school,
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 4:20-4:24
- 6:05
- 6:17
Claim Health Secretary pledges NHS data on child corridor care
Sixteen health groups, including patients, ambulance workers, nurses and charities, urged the government to take urgent action to end corridor care.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 6:17-6:27
- 6:45
Claim Health Secretary pledges NHS data on child corridor care
Two-year-old Finley Roberts died in July 2024 after being treated in a corridor at a north London hospital, and an inquest found he would have had a chance of surviving with the right care.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 6:45-6:52
- 7:40
Claim Health Secretary pledges NHS data on child corridor care
An urgent care package was announced, including a £140 million boost, 14 additional urgent treatment centres and 25 new urgent care programmes or units to open by winter, with the units said to treat hundreds of thousands of patients.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 7:40-7:53
- 23:19 Story begins Green Party conference faces row over Zionism motion
- 45:27
- 45:37
Charged quote Reform UK suspends activist over Islam remarks as undercover film exposes vetting failures
for your party, Reform UK. There's been another undercover investigation, this time by ITV, and it's found multiple elected councillors and party candidates expressing abhorrent racist views, calling Muslims parasites and describing black children as animals. Yeah. I mean, what on earth is going on?
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 45:37-45:40
- 45:40
Charged quote Reform UK suspends activist over Islam remarks as undercover film exposes vetting failures
for your party, Reform UK. There's been another undercover investigation, this time by ITV, and it's found multiple elected councillors and party candidates expressing abhorrent racist views, calling Muslims parasites and describing black children as animals. Yeah. I mean, what on earth is going on? We've heard so many times
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 45:40-45:42
- 46:22
Claim Reform UK suspends activist over Islam remarks as undercover film exposes vetting failures
A Reform representative argued other parties have similar problems, naming the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and Labour.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 46:22-46:32
- 46:52
Claim Reform UK suspends activist over Islam remarks as undercover film exposes vetting failures
Reform UK said there is no room for racism and that it has improved and prioritised its vetting procedures.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 46:52-46:57
- 48:07
Charged quote Reform UK suspends activist over Islam remarks as undercover film exposes vetting failures
They very quickly go to restore. They're thrown out as soon as it's revealed to us, which is a party of the far right. Oh, good morning. That is the party of the far right. I think you made a weak defence, actually, of the abundance of bad people in your party. Absolute abundance. Well, I completely disagree.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 48:07-48:08
- 48:10
Charged quote Reform UK suspends activist over Islam remarks as undercover film exposes vetting failures
They're thrown out as soon as it's revealed to us, which is a party of the far right. Oh, good morning. That is the party of the far right. I think you made a weak defence, actually, of the abundance of bad people in your party. Absolute abundance. Well, I completely disagree. I'm not a bad person. There are a lot of good people there.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 48:10-48:14
- 48:38
- 50:02
Claim Badenoch pledges tax cuts for young workers and family homes, rules out Reform deal
Whately stated that 1 million young people were not in employment, education or training and that youth unemployment had risen by 174,000 under Labour.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 50:02-50:13
- 50:05
Claim Badenoch pledges tax cuts for young workers and family homes, rules out Reform deal
Whately stated that 1 million young people were not in employment, education or training and that youth unemployment had risen by 174,000 under Labour.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 50:05-50:17
- 50:24
Claim Badenoch pledges tax cuts for young workers and family homes, rules out Reform deal
Badenoch announced a cut to employer national insurance for workers aged 21 to 24.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 50:24-50:30
- 50:24
Claim Badenoch pledges tax cuts for young workers and family homes, rules out Reform deal
Badenoch announced a cut to employer national insurance for workers aged 21 to 24.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 50:24-50:32
- 50:24
Claim Badenoch pledges tax cuts for young workers and family homes, rules out Reform deal
Badenoch announced a cut to employer national insurance for workers aged 21 to 24.
BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 18 October 2026, 50:24-50:32
- 54:31
Source: BBC ONE West, "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg", Sunday 18 October 2026. Transcript excerpts and stills are shown only to support the analysis annotated alongside them. Search-result excerpts are distinct from the editorial annotations — see our copyright basis. The full broadcast is not reproduced.