Afternoon briefing Tuesday 4th November

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 4th of November. Rachel Reeves has blamed poor productivity, rising national debt and what she calls a rushed and ill-conceived Brexit as she prepares the public for what are expected to be manifesto-breaking tax rises in her budget.

0:49The Chancellor's taken the unusual step of a pre-budget speech in Downing Street where debt was one of her key focuses. The UK's national debt now stands at£2.6 trillion. equivalent to 94 % of GDP. Before the mini-budget, our borrowing costs were in the middle of the pack compared to other advanced economies. But now we have the highest borrowing costs of any G7 country. Today, one in every£10 of taxpayers' money is spent on debt interest. She insists her fiscal rules are ironclad and cannot be sidestepped. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell says the speech was an exercise in expectations management.

1:30Two lines there that really give a bit of a clue about what's coming in the budget. She said we will all have to contribute, which to me is a steer towards an income tax rise. And she also said that national interests come before political party calculations, which to me is setting up the manifesto for a sacrifice, i.e. that the manifesto commitments around the three big taxes will have to go in the budget. Rachel Reeves also took aim at the last Conservative government, blaming it for austerity and underinvestment. In her own speech this morning, the Conservative leader, Kemi Baden-Ock, said the Chancellor is panicking.

2:02The Chancellor's speech was one long waffle bomb. A laundry list of excuses. She blamed absolutely everybody else for her own choices, her own decisions, her own failures. She claims she will focus on the priorities of the British public. Whose priority is it to pay more tax? The former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84. He was George W. Bush's vice president from 2001 to 2009, having served as his father's defense secretary in the early 90s. He's seen by many analysts as one of the most influential vice presidents in US history for his role in the aftermath of 9-11 and the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

2:44The former sub-postmaster Sir Alan Bates has settled his compensation claim with the government over the Horizon IT scandal. He's understood to be getting a seven-figure sum. LNER has named the member of train crew who remains in hospital following the Huntingdon stabbings as Samir Zitouni. He's still in hospital. The company says he did not hesitate to protect people around him. Reform UK's deputy leader has insisted cutting council tax was never official policy as the majority of reform-led councils prepare to hike it. Richard Tice told Times Radio the promises of some candidates before May's local elections were not the party line.

3:20Nigel and I, we very clearly said we will cut waste. Everybody's bills go up as a standard by the rate of inflation. It's then what you can do in terms of saving money, cutting wasteful spending in order to reduce the rate of growth of bills. That's the key point. More than two million households are facing council tax rises in reform-led areas. And Sir David Beckham has been knighted by the King in a service at Windsor Castle this morning. Don't forget to subscribe to The Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

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