Afternoon Briefing Thursday 2nd October

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. This is your Times Afternoon Briefing for Thursday 2nd October. Four people have been injured at an incident outside a synagogue in Manchester.

0:44A man believed to be the suspect has been shot by armed police. Sir Keir Starmer will be returning to the UK from Denmark as a result to chair a COBRA meeting, saying he is appalled. It's occurred during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur and there was a prayer service going on inside at the time. Reporter Alex Dibble explains that a call was made to police at half nine this morning. A man called police and said that he had seen a car being driven at other members of the public and that one man had been stabbed. Police immediately sent firearms officers to the scene. At 9.38, shots were fired by the firearms officers.

1:22One man was shot, we believe that, to be the offender. Paramedics arrived and they have been tending to four members of the public who have injuries caused by the vehicle in question, but also stab wounds. Police declared the incident as Plato, which means terrorism could be involved, but is not yet confirmed. The migration minister has told Times Radio that the government will create a level playing field between how asylum seekers get settled status and those who've come via legal routes. Currently, legal migrants have more paperwork to do and longer waits to be allowed to stay in the UK than those who've come on small boats and been granted refugee status.

2:00Minister Mike Tapp told us that will change. We've inherited a whole immigration system that's a complete mess, from open borders to the processing of those that arrive grinding to a halt, and a system overall that isn't fair. And what we see is migrants shopping around Europe to find the most generous system. and we're creating a level playing field here to ensure that those pull factors aren't there. The health secretaries ordered an urgent review into the vetting process of doctors after the Times found that some who were banned from practising elsewhere are working in the NHS. The investigation discovered 22 professionals who faced restrictions overseas but had no record of any sanctions on their UK licence.

2:45Nicola's mother was one of those affected. She was discharged from a Nottingham hospital by one of these doctors as her daughter describes. She was struggling to breathe in the car so I wound the window down and I said look mum we need to go back and she said no I'm not going back they said there's nothing wrong I'm going home and then that night she passed away. Local journalists are claiming that reform councillors are refusing to speak to them. The Nottingham Post has launched legal action against its council leaders boycott. News organisations in Kent, Leicester and Wales have reported similar behaviour.

3:22Reform says it engages far and wide with local media and journalists and that Nigel Farage answers more questions from the media every week than any other party leader. It cost the taxpayer£50 ,000 to replace the American flags displayed for Donald Trump's UK visit as they were the wrong shade of red. The UK's flag supplier said they wanted cherry red, so they had to buy new ones at£800 a flag. He added that they should be change frequently to maintain their original colour. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio. This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC.

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