Daily briefing Sunday 8th February

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 Radio Daily Briefing on Sunday 8th February. Peter Manilson is facing calls to give back tens of thousands of pounds he was paid when sacked as ambassador to Washington.

0:44The payoff could have been as high as£55 ,000 before tax for a job he did for just seven months. Government and Whitehall sources have suggested the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, is on the brink of resigning over the appointment of Lord Manelson. Left-wing Labour MP Kim Johnson, who's a critic of Sir Keir Starmer, says the Prime Minister's position is also irredeemable. He's on the ropes, isn't he? We have to think about the benefit of the country and the party. Country first is what he said. And, you know, if decisive action isn't taken, the stability of the country might come into a very difficult position if he doesn't consider his position.

1:24Downing Street has denied either the Prime Minister or his Chief of Staff a thinking about quitting. It's understood the King is allowing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to live on his Sandringham estate in order to contain his brother, who royal sources describe as unstable. The King accelerated Andrew's eviction from Royal Lodge in Windsor over more links to Epstein. A former Labour Education Secretary is calling for a cut in interest rates on student loans, which he calls horrendous. Alan Johnson wants the government to stop calculating them with RPI, which is an inflation measure the Office for National Statistics labelled discredited in 2013.

1:58CPI, which is much more commonly used for inflation and excludes housing costs, tends to be lower. Switching measures is one of the changes the Sunday Times is calling for in a campaign to reduce debt for graduates who started university between 2012 and 2023. Mary Downer is the Times' money reporter who's leading that campaign. The terms of this Plan 2 loan mean that the interest is often much higher than the repayments that can be made. We actually found that you need to earn about£66 ,000 before your repayments become larger than the interest being added. And that's just for an average loan size.

2:31Japan is voting in a surprise snap election. Polls suggest Senai Takeuchi, who's the country's first female prime minister, has defied expectations and could win an outright majority. A think tank says men of pensionable age are now more likely to get married than men in their early 20s. That's compared to men aged 20 to 24 being five times more likely to get married in 1997. The Centre for Social Justice says that change is mostly fuelled by a large fall in younger people getting married. And in rugby union, Gregor Townsend is under pressure as Scotland's head coach after losing to Italy in the men's Six Nations.

3:05They were underwhelming in a rainy game in Rome where they lost 18-15. England are top of the table after the first round after thrashing Wales 48-7, but head coach Steve Borthwick says there is still room for improvement. What was really pleasing is we created loads of opportunities. I think what's really clear we can get better at is them converting those. I thought we didn't, especially in that second half, we didn't convert the opportunities in the manner that I'd like us to. So there's certainly plenty for us to go and work on. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:46This 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.

4:52Get started for free at ActiveCampaign.com.