Afternoon Briefing Friday 5th September

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 5th of September. Angela Rayner has resigned following an investigation by Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister's advisor on ministerial standards.

0:45She's leaving all three of her roles, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Labour Leader and Housing Secretary. Her departure triggers a cabinet's reshuffle. Labour peer Thangam Debonair has given her reaction to Times Radio. She is a great loss to the Labour frontbench. She's done the right thing, but we are losing one of our best voices, a great Labour story, an example that women, particularly women in the Labour movement, but actually women of all political parties and none, have told me they look up to. I do too. I think she has done the right thing, but it doesn't take away the feeling of just this is a loss, a great loss.

1:22Nigel Farage is to tell Reform's party conference later that he's preparing to enter Downing Street in 2027. He apparently believes that both the Labour government and the Tories will collapse. It's reported he wants a US-style cabinet should he become prime minister. That would mean appointing political outsiders to run government departments. Zia Youssef, who runs Reform's Doge unit, has told Times Radio that current cabinets simply don't work. You have this endless revolving door because we have low-grade career politicians making the most critical decisions in the country. And that's why people listening to this programme and watching this programme, their lives have gotten so much worse.

1:57It is in no small part because of the appalling level of talent that we have in politics in this country. Reform offers a fresh new approach. Former Tory culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has switched to reform. An average of almost 100 drivers a day were caught drink driving in the past three years. Road safety charity I Am Road Smart found 108 ,000 motorists in Britain got drink drive endorsements on their licences between 2022 and 2024. The motoring journalist Amanda Stretton has told Times Radio the rules should be made clearer. Understanding the drink drive limits is very very confusing. There is no hard and fast rule as to how many units you can drink which will put you over the limit.

2:37The measurement for drink driving is taken either by a breath sample or a blood sample. Most people can't take their blood samples at the side of the road. And in tennis Amanda Anissimova is in another Grand Slam final two months on from her six love six love humiliation at Wimbledon. The American got past Japan's Naomi Osaka in three sets after getting revenge over Wimbledon champion Iga Sviontek in the quarters. Anissa Mova says compared to earlier in the summer, she's felt different in New York. I feel like when I was at Wimbledon, every single match was kind of like a surprise to me. And I was like shocked with every match that I won.

3:13But here it feels like more I believe in myself and I'm able to do it kind of. So I think that's been the shift for me, at least here at the US Open. She faces reigning champion Irina Sabalenka in tomorrow's final. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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