Morning briefing Monday 3rd November

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0:35This is the Times morning briefing for Monday the 3rd of November. Police are trying to work out the motive for Saturday's mass stabbing on a high-speed train in Cambridgeshire. A 32-year-old man is being held on suspicion of attempted murder. The Times understands that he wasn't previously known by counter-terrorism officers or the security services. A member of the LNER staff who tried to stop the attack remains in a life-threatening condition in hospital. British Transport Police say he undoubtedly saved lives. Afzal Ashraf is a former counter-terrorism advisor to the British government. He's told Times Radio that it's now become all too easy to jump to hasty and misguided conclusions about the motives for attacks like this.

1:20We've had many instances where lots of people have been killed. The question of terrorism just never came up. The Dunblane massacre in 1996 when 16 children were murdered by a man. And nobody really asked the question about terrorism. I think the question here is why are we even assuming that somebody using a knife must be a terrorist? The police say they're not treating this as a terror incident. The Foreign Secretary will travel to Jordan today. Yvette Cooper is calling for more aid to reach Gaza following last month's tentative ceasefire. She announced that the UK will provide an extra£6 million of humanitarian support for Gaza.

2:02Nigel Farage will set out his economic plans today. He'll pledge to form the most pro-business government in British history if Reform UK comes to power. In his first speech to explain a vision for the British economy, he'll champion workers, but will admit that tax cuts won't be possible until the deficit is under control. Gerry Scott is the Times' assistant political editor. He will be setting out what he sees as a path for reform to be both the party of workers and of business. He believes there's too much regulation but of course we're still a long way away from an election, a long way away from Nigel Farage possibly being in number 10.

2:41So all these are very early stage plans. The Defence Secretary John Healy has told Times Radio that the Ministry of Defence is working to remove the rank of Vice Admiral from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He lost his title of Prince on Thursday over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Royal biographer Andrew Morton has told Times Radio that some of Andrew's problems are rooted in money. The issue with this has always been about extravagance and about not living within a budget and always having to borrow from other people. The first test cases in an action against the Police Service of Northern Ireland following a major data breach are to get underway at Belfast High Court later.

3:24The breach happened in August 2023 when a spreadsheet released as part of a Freedom of Information request held hidden data with the initials, surname, rank and role of PSNI officers and staff. You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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