Afternoon briefing Tuesday 23rd 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. This is the Times Afternoon Briefing on Tuesday 23rd September. Jaguar Land Rover has shut down production for another week, extending its factory closures to the 1st of October.

0:45A cyber attack has shut down production since the end of August. Unions have warned of the effect on employees in the carmaker supply chain and the business secretary is meeting those suppliers today. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell says it is not clear there will be government money available though. There is some pressure from local MPs for a kind of government support package. They did something similar. I don't know if you remember when MG Rover got into big trouble about 20 years ago. More than 20 years ago now, there was a sort of a government task force set up. And there is a bigger question here.

1:16Rachel Reeves yesterday was saying that some of these attacks are originating in Russia. So maybe this is a government question. International economists are warning the UK is facing the highest inflation of the G7 this year. The OECD predicts the annual rate in the UK will hit 3.5%. It has marginally upgraded its growth forecast, though, from 1.3 % to 1.4%, the second highest in the G7 after the United States. An economic think tank with close links to government figures says the Chancellor should raise income tax by 2p in the budget and cut national insurance by the same amount. The Resolution Foundation says that would ease the burden on workers and raise Rachel Reeves an extra£6bn a year because income tax is paid by a broader group, including pensioners, landlords and the self-employed.

2:02The think tank's former chief executive is Torsten Bell, who is now a Treasury minister. Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook told Times Radio income tax will not go up, though. In broad terms, I can tell you that the principles that will underpin this budget are that we're going to build an economy that works for all working people. We're going to stick to those non-negotiable fiscal rules. We're going to honour our commitments not to increase the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT on the pay packets of working people. Absolutely. The health secretary has told women to listen to the NHS, not Donald Trump, after the US president linked taking paracetamol during pregnancy to autistic children, where Streeting told ITV's Lorraine there is no evidence to link the two.

2:42A shopkeeper in Germany says the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann bragged to him about having special information which he said would solve the scandal of the century. Farooq Salah Brahmin told The Sun, Christian Bruckner, came in to buy a mobile phone and spoke to him for 90 minutes showing off his ankle tag. He plays the role as a victim. He spoke slowly and nice. He showed the GPS on his feet. He said, hey look, I'm under control. Yeah, Yeah, he found it funny. And I think he thinks it's unfair. Bruckner was released from prison last week after serving a sentence for a separate rape conviction.

3:21He is always denied being involved in Madeleine McCann's disappearance, although German prosecutors insist they are close to charging him. And Denmark's Prime Minister says a drone which shut down Copenhagen's airport yesterday was an attack on Danish infrastructure. Police say it was flown by a capable operator. Oslo airport was also closed because of a drone sighting. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

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