Daily briefing Sunday 7th June

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 Briefing on Sunday 7th June. The Sunday Times has discovered the police force at the centre of the Henry Novak case tried to intervene during the trial of the teenager's murderer.

0:47The Hampshire force wanted to address what it described as disinformation circulating online. That was when court proceedings against Vikram Digwa were at a critical point, but the CPS advised against it. US Vice President J.D. Vance has blamed Henry Novak's death on what he called the mass invasion of migrants, but the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy refutes that. Well, I spoke to the vice president yesterday, and I wanted to emphasize a number of things. The first is that our democratic process is working well. This young man has been convicted. There is an investigation into the police by the Independence Police Complaints Authority.

1:28There is an investigation into Hampshire police by the inspectorate. The AG is looking at the sentencing in relation to this. The National Police Chiefs are looking at the guidance in relation to this. The Prime Minister will single out net zero policies and transport to pay for increased spending on defence. The Sunday Times also understands that Keir Starmer will cut infrastructure spending across all departments by 1 % to raise about£6 billion by the end of this Parliament. Claire Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Secretary, has told Times Radio she disagrees with the government's approach. What they're trying to find over the next few years is£6 billion.

2:04and actually what you're seeing is the working age welfare bill is going to go up by£40 billion. So I think that is the right choice is to tackle the working age welfare bill. We know that it's spiralling out of our control. We need to make sure that actually we reform the welfare system so it's fairer and it isn't costing the state so much money and that's where I would find the funds for defence rather than critical infrastructure projects which bring growth and connectivity to our communities. Nicola Sturgeon will be allowed to keep goods stolen by her estranged husband, Peter Murrell and paid for with SNP funds.

2:37That's unless the party sues her to recover them. Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, has admitted embezzling hundreds of thousands of pounds and will be sentenced later this month. Sunday Times correspondent John Boothman tells us how the money could be reimbursed. Murrell himself has said that he can pay back the sums,£400 ,000 that he embezzled, and there's already, as we know, a restraining order on Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon's marital home. There's private pensions that Murrell has access to and then of course there's the camper van which is an asset as well. Prince William will consider changing the rules on royal properties when he becomes king.

3:22It's the most that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, have never paid rents for their homes at St James's Palace and Kensington Palace. The Sunday Times' royal editor Roya Nikas says public bodies are looking at royal finances and the family is aware of that. These things are happening and I think if they just are tin-eared about them, I think that way disaster lies. So I think this is William trying to indicate plans he already has and how things will be a little bit different going forward. That said, the king is reviewing all these arrangements as he always does and he has put up the rents of usually ambitious names, although they are still well below market value.

3:57You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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