Afternoon briefing Wednesday 5th August

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 Wednesday 5th August. The police force in which PC Andrew Harper served is considering joining potential legal action to stop two of his killers being released early from prison.

0:47PC Harper was dragged to his death behind a car in Berkshire in 2019. The Times' newsroom reporter Ollie Cole is following the story. PC Harper's widow Lizzie says the decision to include two of her husband's killers, Jesse Cole and Albert Bowers, in the early release scheme has left her feeling punched in the gut. Cole and Bowers were convicted of manslaughter and are eligible to be freed halfway. through their 13-year sentences. A petition calling for their early release to be stopped has more than 200 ,000 signatures. Jason Hogg, the chief constable of Thames Valley Police, has told the BBC that legal action to stop their release is something he would look at.

1:22He says public opinion is overwhelming and there's a risk that confidence in the criminal justice system could be damaged. Aileen O 'Connor, the chair of the Thames Valley Police Federation, has told Times Radio she is considering legal action too. I'm also exploring the possibility of a judicial review through the legal avenues and I'll get an update later on that today. I will throw whatever I need to throw at this and I will not stop until we get the right result here. Kemi Badenoch has defended her decision to allow a former neo-Nazi to stand as a councillor. The Conservative leader says Joshua Bonehill-Payne is not being given a national platform and will only be dealing with parking and bins.

2:01She says the threshold to be an MP is much higher and the Bonehill-Payne now works to tackle racism and anti-Semitism. Dr Dave Rich from Jewish charity, the Community Security Trust, has told Times Radio that some people do change their minds. It's not unprecedented for somebody to do that. I think the question of whether that makes them a suitable candidate for public office with everything else that comes into that is a different question. I think it is unsurprising that the people who he targeted in his hateful campaign a decade ago and the wider Jewish community would be quite taken aback to see him put up for public office.

2:38Ministers are drawing up plans to increase government borrowing and then to spend up to£9 billion a year on infrastructure, housing and support for business. It's made possible by a change to the fiscal rules brought in by Rachel Reeves when she was Chancellor. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell says it probably won't spook the markets. As chance would have it, I met one of the biggest gilt investors in the world yesterday and they were reasonably relaxed about the market actually. nervous about any outright mugging with the fiscal rules, but at the same time pointing out that the UK's financial position is in some cases better than its G7 rivals.

3:13One of the things that we're pointing out is that the natural bias of GILT's UK pension funds have largely disappeared from the market. They are full up. 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? 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.

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