Daily briefing Sunday 20th 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. Welcome to the Times Radio News Briefing on Sunday, the 20th of September. Friends of the King have come to his aid as he continues to face criticism from his former brother-in-law Charles Spencer.

0:45Royal friends speaking to the Sunday Times have mentioned Spencer's many marriages and alimony payments. Another described Earl Spencer as an arsonist trying to sell a fire hose. Spencer claims the monarch sounded elated following Princess Diana's death in 1997. Roya Nikar has written the story for the paper. I was quite surprised by the strength of some of the language used by people I spoke to inside the King and Queen circle for this. I mean, the publication of this book, the full book, comes out on Tuesday, but we've seen a series of extracts and interviews that Earl Spencer is giving. Some of the allegations he is making are pretty extraordinary.

1:22So I think it has certainly taken the palace by surprise. The head of the Electoral Commission says he's considering imposing new spending limits on political parties. At present, there's a limit of£34 million to be spent on campaigning in the year before an election. Earlier this month, Cabinet Ministers Angela Rayner and Louise Haig wrote to the elections regulator asking it to reduce spending limits. Gawain Towler, who's a board member with Reform UK, has told Times Radio that this is just a way to target his party. It is transparently another attempt by this government and the establishment to lock down reform.

1:59And it's just, it's getting boring now, isn't it? To pass legislation or to introduce rules specifically to impact on one party is not fair play. Labour has not commented. The cost of disability benefits is expected to rise by£19 billion a year by the end of the decade. The Office for Budget Responsibility says the cost of personal independence payments will increase from£26 billion in 2024 to£45 billion in 2030. Louise Murphy is a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation. She says someone on a big salary can make a claim. Importantly, it's not meant to be about work, so it doesn't depend on your income or your working status.

2:40So in theory, someone earning a six-figure salary can receive PIP. It's really just meant to be about the disability that you have rather than your income. And the government is launching a national task force to tackle misogyny across society. Ministers say it will examine harmful attitudes online, in workplaces and within communities. Richard Philipson, the Women and Equalities Minister, was asked on Times Radio whether it's time to ban the niqab and the burqa, which cover women's faces and which may be imposed by men. No woman should be told by a government minister what she should wear either.

3:14And I'm not prepared to do that. I'm not prepared to tell women that they should or shouldn't dress in a certain way. I wouldn't like it if somebody told me what to wear and I'm not in the business of telling other women. You can follow The Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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