Afternoon Briefing Tuesday 28th 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. Hello, this is your Times Afternoon Briefing for Tuesday 28th October with me, James Kitchen. The Chancellor could face an even bigger financial black hole than expected, with the OBR reportedly preparing to downgrade Britain's productivity predictions by 0.3%.

0:48Every 0.1 % reduction in the OBR's medium-term forecasts adds£7-9 billion to the government borrowing costs in five years. It could mean Rachel Reeves resorts to bigger tax rises at the budget next month. The Defence Minister has told Times Radio his department is ready to step up and support the Home Office in housing asylum seekers. It comes as the Times reveals up to 10 ,000 small boat migrants are to be housed on military camps in a government drive to end the use of hotels within a year. An initial 900 arrivals will be housed in two army barracks in Inverness and East Sussex from next month.

1:25Ministers hope the use of military sites will act as a deterrent to those seeking to cross the channel. Speaking to Times Radio, Luke Pollard refused to confirm using barracks would cost more than hotels, but he insisted all government departments must play their part in tackling the crisis. Where we can support our colleagues in the Home Office, we absolutely will do so, because closing asylum hotels is a priority set out by the Prime Minister. We know that the only reason we have so many people in asylum hotels is because the last government failed to process people, with processing of asylum cases dropping by 70 % on their watch.

2:01The Conservatives will hold a vote later, demanding ministers release the so-called China files after the trial of two men accused of spying collapsed. The deputy National Security Advisor Matt Collins has blamed prosecutors, insisting he had provided enough evidence to bring charges. It comes after the Director of Public Prosecutions claimed Mr. Collins' refusal to label China a threat to national security led to the trial's collapse. Sir Gavin Williamson is a member of the National Security Strategy Committee, which Mr. Collins appeared before yesterday. He told Times Radio the government seems desperate to shut this down.

2:36What you really are expecting when you're getting a witness to give a sense of the nuance of the threat that is being dealt with, the challenges that you're dealing with in terms of coping with that threat. And he was just totally unwilling to give his view and his judgment as to where things were. And you just can't help feeling that there's an awful lot of pressure being placed on Mr Collins. Jamaicans are being urged to bunker down as the world's strongest storm so far this year makes landfall in the coming hours. Hurricane Melissa's strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane, the highest possible alert, with life-threatening winds, rain and storm surges expected.

3:18Government officials say three people have died preparing their homes against the storm, whilst others have been evacuated to emergency shelters. And the faulty Towers actress Prunella Scales has died at the age of 93. Her family says she died at home in London yesterday after a battle with dementia. She was best known for her role as Sybil, the long-suffering wife of Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese. Her sons Samuel and Joseph say she'd been watching the sitcom just a day before her death. And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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