Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 15th April

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 your Times Radio News Briefing for the afternoon of Wednesday 15th April. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, has told Times Radio that the government is investing in defence and is also working to bring down the welfare bill after criticism from a Labour peer and former NATO Secretary-General yesterday.

0:53The Chancellor has proposed less than£10 billion of increased defence spending over the next four years when the armed forces have warned they are facing a funding gap of around£28 billion. Minister James Murray told us one area of spending was not getting investment at the expense of another. We've decided to have the biggest sustained increase in defence investments is the Cold War. At the same time, we've begun our work to reform the welfare system, changing universal credit, reducing fraud and error, reforming motability. There's more work to do and Pat McFadden is leading some really critical work about getting young people into work in particular, which means that young people will avoid a life on benefits and that helps get the benefits bill down as well.

1:34Real terms defence spending fell by 22 % between 2010 and 2017, then started to increase again, recently returning to its 2010 levels. Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Holligrake defended his party's record on Times Radio. We voted to increase military spending from 2 % of GDP to 2.5%, so effectively a 25 % increase back in 2024. But we see there's a need to go further now. That's why we think it should go to 3 % by the end of this parliament. we cannot get Keir Starmer to commit to that. He hangs on to his plans that were established when he first entered office. Yet the world has changed dramatically since then.

2:13Donald Trump said he had given the UK a good trade deal but has threatened that the deal could always be changed implying the strained relationship could bring adverse trade consequences for Britain. The US president renewed his attacks on Sir Keir Starmer in a phone interview with Sky News criticising his policies especially on energy and immigration. He argued that implementing a ban on new oil and gas licences in the North Sea was a tragic mistake. The NHS is failing women, according to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, as he announced plans to make referrals for women's health concerns quicker and more streamlined and encourage professionals to listen to women more.

2:49He's pledged to link funding with positive feedback from women and cut areas that don't listen to women who've had bad care. Former chair of the Royal College of GPs, Baroness Gerarda, who's been a GP for 40 years, told Times Radio some examples of medical misogyny she's come across. If a woman presents with chest pain, for example, they're thought to have anxiety. If a man presents with chest pain, he's immediately referred for possible heart disease. We also know, for example, that research is done predominantly on male illnesses with men. Women are excluded for actually being participants in research because maybe they're pregnant.

3:29where the evidence shows that in most cases they don't need to be excluded. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

3:44This 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.