Andy Burnham completes his first Prime Minister's Questions

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. We do the things we do and how to make better choices to help avoid costly mistakes. Each episode covers the latest research in behavioral science and dives into themes like the power of self-control, shaping your mindset for success, navigating new beginnings and why starting over can feel so hard. Listen to choisology at Schwab.com slash podcast or wherever you listen. I'm pretty confident talking into a mic.

1:00Hey, I'm doing it right now. But home projects, I second guess everything. Is that noise normal? Is that water damage? Who do I even call? That's where thumbtack comes in. Just upload a photo or voice note and it uses AI powered search to match you with the right top rated local pro. So instead of guessing, you get clarity and can hire with confidence. For your next home project, try thumbtack. I'm Caroline Nichols and on Wednesday, the second of September, these are the main news stories from Radio 4. Andy Burnham's debut at Prime Minister's Questions is dominated by the government's approach to the public finances. The markets are clearly worried that we now have a spend-thrift Prime Minister who wants to say yes to everyone but cannot tell us where the money is coming from.

2:03This will be a government grounded in fiscal responsibility. It will stick to the fiscal rules. Nigel Farage tells the BBC reform UK is always under investigation because its opponents are worried about the new kids on the block. What you see is the establishment in a very coordinated way fighting back. But you know something? It isn't going to work. Families of the victims of the Nottingham Stabbings condemn police for not informing them that a man obsessed with the case with the history of violence had tried to visit them. No one is really concerned for our safety. We've not had advice from the police about how to manage this or how we should keep ourselves safe. NATO and the EU vow to increase pressure on Russia after accusing it of a reckless attempt to attack a German airport. And what we've actually observed is a flash of light or a collection of flashes of light and this then remains an outlier and that's really why we're excited about it.

3:05A tantalising development in the quest for dark matter. Andy Burnham has been pressed about his management of the public finances in his first session of Prime Minister's questions with the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoc, calling him a spend-thrift who wants to say yes to everyone. The Prime Minister answered a range of questions about spending commitments, rising government debt and potential tax rises, indicating a clear ideological divide over the economy between him and the Tories. Mr. Burnham criticised the previous Conservative government, saying it exposed the UK to turbulence on global markets and insisted his downing street operation was grounded in fiscal responsibility. A political correspondent Ben Wright was listening. Stepping out of his new front door the morning Andy Burnham smiled and shrugged at the drizzle falling in downing street. But the sunny vibes of his first weeks in office can't disguise the cold reality of the country's finances. Miga growth, high debt and rising borrowing costs.

4:08Mr. Burnham's the latest Prime Minister to reckon with the power of the bond markets. And yesterday saw a global sell-off that pushed UK borrowing costs to their highest level since the 2008 financial crash. This could mean the Chancellor John Healey has to cut spending or raise taxes at next month's budget to ensure credibility with the markets. At their first PM Q's in the Commons, the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoc, pressed the Prime Minister on his plans. The markets are clearly worried that we now have a spend-thrift Prime Minister who wants to say yes to everyone but cannot tell us where the money is coming from. He needs to pay for all his new promises and he has a choice, higher taxes, more borrowing or spending cuts. Yesterday he said change begins with honesty. So will he be honest and tell us? Is he preparing to raise taxes again? Yes or no? Mr. Burnham pointed out he had already cut VAT on electricity bills but said he wouldn't

5:11indulge in budget speculation. And despite his repeated insistence Britain needs a new economic vision, he also stressed his government's fiscal discipline. We are taking the action needed to get debt down. This will be a government grounded in fiscal responsibility. It will stick to the fiscal rules. But at the same time we will help reduce cost of living pressure on our constituents and that's the approach that we will take. Andy Burnham has made much of wanting a new sort of politics, ending the partisan point scoring he says voters loathe. But he also tried to blame the rising cost of borrowing and market turbulence on the Conservative Party's legacy and mocked Kemi Badenoc for appointing a former Liz Trust Treasury Minister as her new shadow chancellor. Despiring though was sharp and playful, two confident performers with very different visions for the country. But one of the most pointed questions came from Mr. Burnham's own side, the Labour MP

6:15and Defence Select Committee Chair Tan Desai. Defence is definitely one area where vibes alone just isn't going to be enough. So rather than kick the can down the road waiting for a fiscal event in the future, in a future year, will the Prime Minister urgently commit to charting a pathway to reach 3% of GDP spend on defence by 2030? Mr. Burnham said he had already made that commitment, but by when and how defence spending will rise isn't yet clear. One of several spending pressures for a new Prime Minister facing many of the same constraints as his predecessor. The UK is not uniquely exposed to higher debt repayments with the US and Japan also facing bond yields at levels last seen during the 2008 financial crisis. Here's our economics editor, Faisal Islam. The bigger picture is that practically the whole world is borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars and it's not just governments.

7:17Mass investments in AI data centres are being funded in the same bond markets by the big tech companies taking out long-term loans. More than $219 billion of debt has already been issued this year by US firms such as Google, Amazon and Meta, nearly a third of it in currencies other than the dollar, including sterling. They've even taken out 100 year loans. Competition in the market for these loans is in effect pushing up the price for governments. The credibility of the borrowing plans of major economies is also key. This is not about countries going bankrupt. It is the brutal market equation that if a country wants to borrow more and to do so without a credible plan or if there is some doubt test to the government's stability and longevity, then expect to pay increasing premiums. Influential economists lean on different explanations. Something the AI competition in bond markets is the biggest new factor. Others emphasise uncertainty about US policy and in particular efforts by the government there to manage down surging yields. The leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage has told the BBC the UK is what he called a Complainance Society

8:22as he faces ongoing questions about both his and his parties funding. His under investigation by the Parliamentary Commission of Standards over his failure to declare a £5 million gift in the months before he became an MP. He's been speaking to our political editor, Chris Mason. Reform UK gathers for its annual conference in Birmingham tomorrow amid political headwinds. Much of which revolve around money. That whopping gift from Christopher Harbourn, the Thailand-based British billionaire, then there's the Metropolitan Police investigation into donations to the party during the last general election campaign. On the specifics of each case, Mr Farage maintained they've acted appropriately. But he offered an insight into how he perceives the hurricane of questions he faces. Point is we live in a Complainance Society. If you complain about me, automatically that triggers an investigation. There's a big picture here, the old two party system that has dominated,

9:23frankly, since the end of the First World War, feels for the first time it faces an existential threat. So I think what you're seeing is the establishment in a very coordinated way fighting back. But you know something, it isn't going to work. Doesn't that sound a bit conspiracy theory-like? But this, the whole world's out to get us stuff. When you read him in use, paper, you're under investigation and you don't even know a complaint's been made. You can see the degree of collusion that has gone on between interested parties. This will not stop. They will continually try and do this to us. Who's there? I'm talking about normal human behaviour. People who hold positions of power, influence, and money don't want new kids on the block succeeding. His claim of collusion is a big one without evidence. But you hear there a sense of why he perceives that that is what it feels like. Nigel Farage and Reform have dominated much of the political debate in the last few years and played a significant role in accelerating Sir Keir Starmer's demise as Prime Minister.

10:27But when you're a candidate for Prime Minister, for government, the scrutiny cranks up. Big time. The families of the two students killed in the Nottingham attacks have said police failed to inform them that a man with a history of violence had tried to visit them. Barnaby Weber and Grace O'Malley Kumar were fatally stabbed in June 2023 during a series of attacks that also killed a school caretaker Ian Coates. The families say they weren't told the full details about the man's past until recently, including that he'd been referred to the Prevent Anti-Terrorism Program. Our Midlands correspondent, Nattas Jojauhau reports. Grace O'Malley Kumar's mother, Dr. Shanado Malley, says her family were told by police in 2025 that a man with serious mental health issues from Nottingham, who had a fixation on their case, had visited her husband's GP surgery in London. Emma Weber, Barnaby's mother, said that the year before the man had also traveled to Somerset where her family are based. Speaking to Radio Force World at one, Dr O'Malley said it was only recently as a result of

11:30ongoing investigations into Nottinghamshire Police in relation to the attacks that they were informed of further details about the man by the police watchdog, the independent office for police conduct, including that he'd been referred to the Prevent Program and had a history of violence. Both families say their angry at Nottinghamshire Police and Dr O'Malley believes the force should have been more transparent. We should have been notified in detail about the context, about who this man was, and we should have been given some guidance about how to deal with it, and just to be reassured that we would be kept in the loop. And we just haven't. I mean, we don't feel a proper risk assessment was been done, and that seems to be a constant theme. It goes from one failure to another. In a statement, Emma Weber called it a failure of basic safeguarding, basic compassion, and basic common sense. Nottinghamshire Police said it received a complaint, and due to its nature, referred the matter to the IOPC. A spokesperson for the police watchdog said it was assessing the referral from the force to decide what further action was required.

12:31The president of the European Commission says the failed drone attack at Leipzig Airport last month, which Germany has blamed on Moscow, is an escalation of Russian interference on European soil. Rosalau Fondelian said it could have killed people and warned that more sanctions could be used against Russia. She was speaking after meeting the NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss the growing threat from Moscow. Our Berlin correspondent Jessica Parker has the latest. Russia has grown increasingly reckless. That was the verdict of Mark Rutte, the head of the NATO military alliance, after Germany publicly blamed Moscow for a failed drone attack at Leipzig Airport that had appeared to target Ukrainian cargo planes. The European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU would need to step up its protection of critical infrastructure while continuing to support Ukraine and put pressure on Russia. Leipzig marks a new escalation on European Union soil directly attributed to Russia.

13:33But it is part of a broader pattern of increasingly dangerous incidents. Repeated incursions in our airspace, drones that power our airports, interference with our critical infrastructure. Berlin has accused Russia of using low-level agents to carry out the operation at Leipzig and German media reports say investigators have identified two suspects who have ties to Russia. Moscow has described the claim that it's responsible as absurd. President Putin even accused Germany of planting evidence to, he suggested, distract from domestic political woes. Separately, German police are investigating two suspected sabotage attacks over two days on the country's power grid. The alleged perpetrators are so far unknown, but there are warnings that drone incursions and interference with critical infrastructure is for Europe now a new normal. There have been extraordinary scenes in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where members of two intelligence agencies opened fire on each other.

14:36No lives were lost, but one person was seriously injured. President Zelensky has given the chiefs of both organisations a serious dressing down. From Kyiv, a diplomatic correspondent, James Landale sent this report. Gunfire on the streets of Kyiv in the early hours of this morning. But this was no Russian attack. Instead, a sustained exchange of fire between Ukrainian state officials, apparently members of rival intelligence agencies. On one side, the so-called SBU, Ukraine's security service, broadly equivalent to MI5, on the other, a body called GUR, Ukraine's military intelligence. What happened and why is unclear and disputed, but it appears to center an a man called Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of a paramilitary group of Russians, who oppose President Putin and fight for Ukraine. The Russian Voluntirka is ostensibly controlled by GUR military intelligence,

15:37but the SBU security services reportedly detained and questioned Kaplunov. They also tried to search his apartment in eastern Kyiv, but there were members of GUR outside who allegedly blocked their way. This led to a confrontation and a far fight between both sides. Three men were reportedly injured one seriously. An official inquiry has been opened, and a spokesman for President Zelensky said he had taken the chiefs of both agencies to task. But for Ukraine's leader and his allies, a reminder that this country may be united against Russia, but it retains institutional and political divisions that have never gone away. The United States and Iran have carried out their biggest exchange of attacks since July. Iran says at least 12 people were killed in the latest U.S. strikes, one of which it claimed hit a wedding in the south of the country. Iran's foreign ministry described that as a war crime. The Pentagon has insisted it does not target civilians. In response, Iran says it carried out

16:37attacks on American targets across the Middle East. Our correspondent Katie Watson sent this report from Jerusalem. There were intense bombardments overnight. The month-long larle in the war apparently over. On the ground in Iran, there was panic and confusion. After a missile hit a house where a wedding was taking place, those killed included children. Iranian state media said a civilian airport and a factory were also attacked, resulting in more casualties. The latest strikes also provoked a war of words with Iran's top negotiator, Muhammad Ghalib-Aff, accusing the United States of being Satan. The U.S. denied targeting civilians. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks in Jordan and across the Gulf. Just last week, Washington seemed to be pivoting away from military action and towards economic pain, imposing yet more sanctions on Iran in an effort to find a path forward

17:37and reopen the state of Hormuz. But that was short lived. It's back to strikes, counter strikes, and a growing fear that this could keep escalating. You're listening to the six o'clock news on BBC Radio 4. The main news so far. Andy Burnham has insisted his government is taking action to get its debt down after being accused by the conservatives of being a spend-thrift prime minister. The families of the two students killed in the Nottingham attacks have said police failed to inform them that a man with a history of violence had tried to visit them. Still to come? It is a well-deserved break for all of the crew and we really look forward to our time here to get a little rest or relaxation. After eight months at sea, 5,000 American sailors get some R&R in the tire resort of Pattaya. Book a Loved by Guest Property with Verbo And you get a top-rated vacation rental that's loved for all the right reasons, like being in a great location or having great amenities.

18:39Oh, I love my Verbo for the view. Good reason. Ooh, Am the sauna. Sweet. Another good reason. Am that it's one of those goods to be honest with the hot rock thing? Oh, love a good hot rock thing. Fancy. That's also a reason. Don't worry about surprises. Book a verbo you'll love with the love by Guest filter. If you know, you verbo. A team of British scientists say they may be one step closer to detecting the enigmatic substance

19:41dark matter. Using a sensitive detector, one mile below ground, in a former gold mine in the US state of South Dakota, the research just saw an atom and a mystery particle colliding. A correspondent Georgina Ranard reports. A particle unknown to science and intriguing particle interaction. When phrases like these are used, it's hard not to feel excited. Dark matter is one of the biggest remaining unsolved puzzles. Scientists do know it is invisible. That it is the fabric holding our universe together, and that it forms about 85% of total matter. But in a century of searching, no one has ever actually seen it. Like an animal leaving footprints in the snow, dark matter is detected only by its gravitational pull on visible objects, like stars. So when scientists announce that they may have finally detected dark matter, it generated huge excitement. Dr. Sam Erickson of Bristol University led the research.

20:45What we've actually observed is a flash of light or collection of flashes of light, which are consistent with what we'd expect dark matter to look like and doesn't look like anything else that interacts. All of the properties of this particular interaction are so different compared to all of the backgrounds that we know, and this event remains an outlier, and that's really why we're excited about it. But be wary. A tantalising promise does not always deliver good science. True breakthroughs are made of more than good vibes. The research has yet to be reviewed by independent scientists, and the findings have been rated 2.6 sigma, the system that marks the statistical significance of discoveries, the normal threshold is five. A doctor who the child killer Lucy Letby was accused of having an affair with has been named following his death in July. Mark Deakin, who was 53 and married with two children, worked as a consultant pediatrician. He'd been granted lifelong anonymity ahead of giving evidence

21:50that let these trial. His our correspondent Daniel Sanford. Dr. Mark Deakin was dismissed from his job as a diabetes and pediatrics consultant at Alderhead Children's Hospital in Liverpool in June after a three day hearing. The next day he was found collapsed in his car, and he died a week and a half later. It's understood that he had been unwell. When Lucy Letby stood trial for murdering babies at her hospitals, she denied that she was having an affair with Dr. Deakin, who was referred to in quarters Dr. A. She said they were just good friends. Dr. Deakin had been granted anonymity at Letby's trial and during the public inquiry. Evidence showed the pair had exchanged more than a thousand Facebook messages and decoded help Letby's secure replacement at Alderhead Hospital after she was suspected of murdering babies and sent her information about one of the babies she was accused of attempting to kill. He said he'd been misled by Letby and had been a massive mistake to help her. The last legal restriction preventing Dr. Deakin being named was lifted at the court

22:55of appeal today after an application by associated newspapers following his death. The Ministry of Justice says around 700 offenders will leave jails in England and Wales on the morning of the 1st of October under the government's early release scheme. The revised plan was published this morning after being signed into law yesterday. Officials estimate more than two and a half thousand eligible offenders will have been freed by the end of the year. Four people have appeared in court charged with the murder of a newborn baby girl who was found stabbed to death at a house in Sheffield on Sunday. Andreish got Pover who's 20, 19-year-old Pettor Hover a 38-year-old man with the same name and Nina Hover to Var whose 37 were Amanda in custody. A 15-year-old girl appeared separately charged with perverting the course of justice. All five will appear before Sheffield Crown Court tomorrow. A group of peers is calling for the government to have a kill switch which would deactivate AI systems in the event of the technology posing a national security threat. Lord Tim Clement Jones who proposed

24:01the measure said it would enable the building of a vital safety net which could be used as a last resort. Our technology editor Zoe Kleinman explains. In March a report found hundreds of incidents of AI tools ignoring instructions or deceiving humans. Over the summer some AI products being tested by open AI were able to secretly communicate with each other and hack another tech firm. Now a group of peers led by Sir Tim Clement Jones has proposed having a kill switch as part of an amendment to the existing cybersecurity and resilience bill. He says giving the government the power to turn it all off as a last resort makes sense. This is much more fundamental and basic. It basically says look if there's evidence that a large language model is creating catastrophic risk of the kind set out you can pull a plug on the data center which is basically supporting it. This is a very very simple and straightforward way of making sure that we're not nationally

25:04vulnerable. Now you know what's not to like about that. Separately next week the Labour MP Alex Sable plans to introduce a UK AI security bill in Parliament. This also includes the option for the government to ban the development of super intelligent AI in the future. The DVLA has said a criminal prosecution against the mayor of London, Sir DeCon, will be withdrawn after he was convicted of not taxing a Nissan Micro that's more than 20 years old. The Labour peer was fined last month for keeping an unlicensed vehicle but has insisted the car does not belong to him and was wrongly registered in his name. A spokesman for the mayor said he'd been the victim of a scam. The former Potsdar Gary Glitter whose real name is Paul Gad has pleaded not guilty at Southern Crown Court in London to eight charges of sexual abuse. The allegations relate to a girl when she was aged between eight and eleven years old from 1978 to 1981. The 82-year-old is due to go on trial in November next year. The Scottish Government says it's looking at ways to tackle the

26:10sale of illegal tobacco in some high street shops. Trading standards officers say there's been an explosion in the illicit trade which has been linked to organised crime. Our Scotland reporter Katie Hunter has more details. You know why we're here? We keep getting complaints about your selling, don't you cigarette and all that. Within minutes of entering this high street shop in Inverness, trading standards officers find what they're looking for. So we've got a selection of ticket rates rather it's not in clean packaging. Some of it is full and right-tang. Trading standards officers say there's been an explosion in the sale of illegal tobacco in places such as Inverness in recent years. They link it to organised crime. How many times have you been in that shop? Probably about ten times. So you've been in there ten times? Ten times still. And they still still selling illicit tobacco products. It's a UK-wide problem and councils in Scotland want new powers like those in England to help tackle it. David McKenzie is chair of the Chartered Trading Standards

27:12Institute and Trading Standards Manager for Highland Council. South of the border, the local authorities are able to apply for closure orders which forces a bit, you know, a repeat offender, basically for the shop to close down. That's perhaps six months at the moment and it's been increased to 12 months and we don't have that power so we really need these extra powers to be effective and protect our communities as best we can. The Scottish government says a lizard tobacco is a serious issue and it's working with partners about how best to deal with it. A US aircraft carrier has docked in Thailand after more than eight months at sea, giving almost 5,000 service members a much needed break. Gruelling conditions were reported on board the USS Abraham Lincoln while it was deployed in the Gulf, including shortages of food and hygiene products. Now sailors are getting a few days rest in the beach resort of Patayah from where our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Heads sent this report. At Patayah's famous, perhaps infamous walking streets, the bars are cranking up for the evening,

28:16hoping tonight for an influx of free spending American sailors. 5,000 of them have just arrived on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after their record 250 days at sea without a break. Most of that in combat near Iran. The carrier's commanding officer is Captain Dan Keeler. We're very very happy to be here on buddy of each. Thank you Mr. Mayor for walking us. It is a well-deserved break for all of the crew and we really look forward to our time here to get a little rest on a relaxation. Conditions on board the carrier have been the subject of concern in recent weeks with allegations of broken plumbing and inadequate supplies contributing to mounting mental stress. Something the US Navy has denied, though it acknowledges that conditions have been tough, but this mother of one crew member says she has been worried. There was a time where you know the morale was low and I said what can I do you know what can I do I knew she would be okay but it was frightening.

29:19So a time to decompress for the US sailors in a place which was transformed from a sleepy fishing village into this neon lit party town by an earlier generation of American servicemen seeking rest and recreation during the Vietnam War. That left a legacy of a sex industry which is still very visible here although this generation of Americans has been ordered to stay away from patiers more notorious attractions during their five days stay in the city. The American golfer Tiger Woods has changed his plea to a charge of reckless driving after a crash in Florida earlier this year to Guilty. It means he'll avoid the more serious charge of driving under the influence which could have seen the 15-time major champion sent to prison. The judge suspended his driving license for five years. The king is being treated to a sneak peak of one of the most famous medieval artworks in the world which depicts the fate of two of his predecessors. He and the queen are attending a private view at the British Museum of the Biotapistry before

30:22the start of a highly anticipated exhibition next week. The tapestry tells the story of the Norman conquest of 1066, the death of King Harold and the victory of William the Conqueror. Our culture editor Katie Razzle is at the museum. Entering through the towering columns that frame the British Museums portico the King and Queen alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and the Prime Minister have begun a private tour of the medieval treasure. This is the team's museum. The artwork, which is nearly 70 meters long, tells the dramatic story of the last time England was successfully invaded. Today the Biotapistry is being celebrated as a symbol of Anglo-French reconciliation and shared history. Nick Cullenen is the director of the British Museum. Is this a sign that culture can have such a huge impact diplomatically? Yeah absolutely I think it's a sign of the significance of this loan. Such an historic loan this is back on our shores for the first time in almost a thousand years. It's a sign of what culture can do the way it can build bridges between different

31:26countries as is the case here and I think it's also symptomatic of just the level of excitement of people getting to see the Biotapistry in London for the first time ever. So it's a very special day. I was at the museum earlier in the summer for the tapestries dead of night return to the UK for the first time since it was believed to have been made in southeast England by expert female embroiderers nearly a thousand years ago. There was reluctance by some in France about the loan of the fragile artwork to Britain. President Macron pushed it through a sign of the ontant cordial between two nations. The headlines again Andy Burnham has dismissed a claim by the conservatives that he's a spend-thrift telling his first session of Prime Minister's questions that his government is grounded in fiscal responsibility. The reform UK leader Nigel Farage has told the BBC that Britain is a complainant society as he faces ongoing questions about his and his parties funding. The families of two of the victims of the Nottingham attacks have criticised police

32:29for not informing them that a man with a history of violence, who's obsessed with the case, had tried to visit them. Scientists say they may be one step closer to discovering dark matter after witnessing a single particle collision they could not explain. BBC News Get more with BBC podcasts wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your favourite shows, like Evil Genius, Good Bad Billionaire, and You're Dead To Me, with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon Music subscription. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand.

33:30Get a great deal during the Jeep Drive-In to Fall Sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, Jeep and the Jeep Grill Register Trademarks of FCAUS LLC.