Afternoon briefing Tuesday 21st 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 the Times afternoon briefing on Tuesday the 21st of October. The Times has revealed Prince Andrew pays no rent on his Grace and Favour mansion in Windsor.

0:44His leasehold agreement shows he owes peppercorn rent until 2078 after paying£8.5 million for refurbishment in 2003. It adds more pressure to the prince on the day the memoir of his sex accuser Virginia Giffray is published. The business secretary Peter Kyle spoke to Times Radio. It's pretty obvious what I think as a person. I am deeply, deeply affected, moved and disgusted by what she and others went through. I want those victims of Jeffrey Epstein to get all the justice that they deserve and all the truth that they deserve at times like this. And anybody who has any information that might be useful to delivering that justice and that information should be doing so.

1:22The Prince has always denied all of Mr. Frey's accusations. Government borrowing has risen to a five-year high so far this financial year. Last month, the government borrowed£20.2 billion. That's up£1.6 billion on the same point last year, and it's the highest September figure since 2020 during the pandemic. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell has been looking through the numbers. So far in this financial year, so since the end of March, the government has borrowed£100 billion, 13 % more than last year. Debt is now at 95.3 % of GDP, the highest it's been since the early 60s.

1:57I think the big picture is no improvement of the pretty depressing trend in the public finances and the run-up to the budget. A government still having to borrow pretty hard to make ends meet. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, says the government won't lose control of the public finances. Justice Minister Sarah Sackman has insisted victims can have confidence in the national inquiry into grooming gangs. Two survivors of child sexual abuse have resigned from the inquiry, saying they fear people will be silenced or problems will be brushed under the carpet. The Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick says he would probably ban the burqa if he were in government.

2:33I think there's definitely a strong argument for it. There are basic values in this country and we should stand up and defend them. And where you're seeing them fraying at the edges or frankly being completely destroyed, whether it's Sharia courts or the wearing of the burqa, these are issues we're going to have to confront if we want to build the kind of society that we want to hand on to our kids and grandkids. Kimi Badenoch's former rival for the Conservative leadership was asked about it on a phone-in on talk. The proposal is not official Conservative Party policy. When ReformUK MP Sarah Pochin asked about a ban at Prime Minister's questions in June, Chairman Zia Yousaf resigned from the party, only to rejoin two days later.

3:12The incoming president of the Oxford Union Debating Society has lost a vote of no confidence. George Aberawonnier appeared to celebrate the shooting of the Conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month, having previously debated him at the Union. In the Premier League, Nottingham Forest have appointed Sean Dyche as their third manager this season. Ange Postacoglu was sacked on Saturday after just 39 days in charge. And Rishi Sunak is joining the Sunday Times. The former Prime Minister will write a weekly column in the Business section about business, technology, politics and the economy. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

3:58This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in our hands, but return on investment, not so much. So how do you get beyond the hype and deliver AI that powers reinvention and growth across your business? Strong foundations unlock AI's potential. That's why PwC takes you further with tech, strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk.

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