Afternoon Briefing Friday 21st November

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters. PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Welcome to the Times Afternoon Briefing on Friday the 21st of November. Michael Gove, who was a senior cabinet minister during the pandemic, has told Times Radio he disputes a major finding of the COVID inquiry.

0:46It's claimed there would have been more than 20 ,000 fewer deaths if Boris Johnson had imposed a lockdown in England a week earlier than March 23, 2020. But Lord Gove takes issue with that. The suggestion that 23 ,000 lives would have been saved if we had locked down earlier is... It's not proven. To be fair, the report later on makes the point that models are projections, not predictions. And so those are figures from a model, and I think that we need to treat them with care. The government has borrowed£9.9 billion more than expected in the fiscal year to October. Figures published by the ONS show Borrowing was£17.4 billion in October.

1:32That's the third highest total for the month since records began. Ian King, Times business columnist, explains the context. If you look into the components of all this, tax receipts, and obviously we had a very, very big tax raising budget last year. Tax receipts were up by some 7.5 % year on year. But it's government spending. That's up 8.5 % over the course of the year. So really, the government is just spending more money than it's bringing in taxes. And that is widening. And that's really why we are where we are. Sir Keir Starmer is expected next month to formally approve a new supersized Chinese embassy in the heart of London near Tower Bridge.

2:11The Times has been told that neither the Home Office nor the Foreign Office will raise any formal objections, but that depends on appropriate mitigations to protect national security. Starmer is also expected to travel to China next year. Stefan Boscher, Times political correspondent, says the PM was supposed to go this year. That was, you know, Downing Street plan has been put off, so it will happen next year. But it comes after Rachel Rees, Peter Kyle, other ministers have also been over to China in the last 16 months. And they're really trying to build a better trading relationship, trying to get more Chinese investment into the UK, while also, you know, they say not getting investment that could risk national security.

2:50And the National Crime Agency says it's uncovered a multi-billion pound money laundering network in the UK. It says it's operating in 28 towns and cities and even has its own bank in Central Asia. Sal Melke from the NCA says it means that people buying drugs in Britain are helping to fund Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There are hundreds of couriers, professional money launderers, willing to pick up that drugs cash and convert that into crypto for onwards movement. And we are able to draw a line as we zoom out to payments in support of the Russian industrial military complex. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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