Afternoon Briefing Tuesday 22nd 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 Radio afternoon briefing on Tuesday the 22nd of September. Andy Burnham will address what he calls the turbulence caused by Brexit when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly later.

0:46The Prime Minister says there's a need to be clear eyed about challenging the impact of leaving the European Union on the British economy. Meanwhile, the PM's due to meet Donald Trump at the UN this afternoon. The former UK ambassador to Washington, Lord Darroch, says the president will want to talk about security. On defence spending, Trump will say, for God's sake, get on with it. You've promised to get 3%. How are you going to do it? And then maybe you'll bang on immigration, that kind of stuff. And Burnham, for his part, has to get Trump on Ukraine and whether America can do more to help Ukraine's air defences, because otherwise there's a brutal winter facing Ukrainians.

1:24Andy Burnham will also hold his first face-to-face talks with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He wants to resolve a dispute over EU plans to discriminate against British car exports. The Times' political editor, Stephen Swinford, says it'll be a tough negotiation. The EU always plays hardball. I remember back in there when David Davis used to take a radiation-proof briefcase, so they couldn't scan the contents of his documents during Brexit negotiations. They play hardball, they've done it on youth mobility, They've made life very difficult for Keir Starmer on this, and I'm sure they'll do the same for Andy Burnham.

1:58They strike a very hard bargain. Andy Burnham has agreed to give military support to Saudi Arabia in its struggle against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Prime Minister says British planes will provide air-to-air refuelling for Saudi jets. Riyadh has cut oil shipments to European refineries after drone attacks damaged an export pipeline. Defence Minister Luke Pollard has been talking to Times Radio. We expect this to be a time-limited deployment of the Voyager aircraft that's normally based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. And we're expecting that to last for weeks rather than days. But we'll keep that under review in cooperation with our Saudi friends.

2:36The government's borrowed£3 billion more than expected in August. It borrowed£18.5 billion, up by£2.9 billion on August last year. Over the course of this year, government borrowings already£8 billion more than expected. And the majority of prisoners being freed under the early release scheme will not be tagged before being let go next month. They will instead be fitted with a tag in the community. Former prison governor Ian Aitchison says the whole policy is a disaster. Very sadly, when we get the first tranche of mass release of risky prisoners on October 1st, it is highly likely because of the insufficiency of the measures that have been put in place that they're going to be serious further offences.

3:20They've happened in the past and they will happen again. And it will be absolutely on the government's head because this is a choice the government made. They could have built their way out of this problem. Instead, they chose to release prisoners. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online. This 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?

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