Evening briefing Wednesday 4th 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 evening briefing on Wednesday 4th February. The government has been forced into a climb down about Peter Mandelson by MPs after a dramatic afternoon in Parliament.

0:45The Prime Minister's question, Sir Keir Starmer, revealed Lord Mandelson's continued relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was flagged to him during vetting to be ambassador to Washington, but he says he was repeatedly misled. Mandelson lied throughout the process and beyond the process. He lied, he lied, and he lied again to my team. The Prime Minister initially said the government would release redacted vetting documents to give MPs transparency but the Conservative leader Kemmy Badenoch accused him of a cover-up. His catastrophic lack of judgement, telling us now that he did know, has harmed the special relationship.

1:19It has endangered national security. It's not the humble address, it's him. It's compromised our diplomacy and it has embarrassed our nation. After that, MPs debated the release of those vetting files and demanded that Parliament's Security Committee, rather than the Government, decide what to redact. Among them was the former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. In 2022, I proposed a humble address seeking information about PPE, which the party opposite desisted. And my honourable friend, the member for Hackney South, mentioned just before, should we not have the ISC not have the same role now in keeping public confidence in the process?

1:57By mid-afternoon, the government had backed down and said the Intelligence and Security Committee would get those files. MPs have since approved that arrangement. The Metropolitan Police says it's told the government not to release certain documents so it doesn't undermine its investigation into Lord Manelson. The Times' chief political commentator Patrick Maguire says this afternoon has seriously undermined the Prime Minister. Regardless of whose fault it was or who was mates with who, ultimately there's no way to spin this other than as a pretty unforced and spectacular error of judgment by the Prime Minister himself.

2:30How do you come back from this in terms of the authority of the office and the dignity of the office? Yeah, it's just really bad for the Labour Party and the Prime Minister. Tune in to Times Radio to hear updates throughout this evening. Elsewhere, Ukrainian negotiators say trilateral talks with Russia and the US have been productive and substantive. That is despite officials in eastern Ukraine saying Russian forces used cluster munitions on a crowded market just after talks began, killing seven people. The talks will continue in Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Six Palestine action activists have been cleared of aggravated burglary at an Israeli defence firm in Bristol.

3:05The break-in at Elbit Systems Factory happened in August 2024. The jury did not reach a verdict on charges of grievous bodily harm and violent disorder which some were facing The leader of a Christian summer camp has pleaded guilty to drugging his wife last July so that she wouldn't wake up while he sexually assaulted two boys 76-year-old John Rubin has already admitted those assaults as well as child cruelty towards six other children and De Montfort University in Leicester says it's devastated after one of its students was stabbed to death He was attacked in the city centre yesterday afternoon.

3:38An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Don't forget to subscribe to the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

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