Afternoon Briefing Friday 17th April

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. Hello, this is your Times Radio afternoon briefing for Friday the 17th of April with me, James Kitchen. Sir Keir Starmer says it's unforgivable he was not told about vetting failures over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.

0:47The Prime Minister last night sacked the Foreign Office head Sir Oliver Robbins after learning Lord Mandelson's appointment was rubber-stamped despite the peer failing security checks. Sir Keir Starmer insisted for months that due process had been followed, but it's now emerged the Foreign Office overruled the recommendation Lord Mandelson shouldn't take up the role. Opposition parties are calling for the Prime Minister's resignation. He says he'll set out the full facts before Parliament on Monday. That I wasn't told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he's appointed is staggering.

1:22That I wasn't told that he'd failed security vetting when I was telling Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable. Not only was I not told, no Minister was told. And I'm absolutely furious about that. The Labour MP Graham Stringer told Times Radio Number 10 is leaving a power vacuum at the heart of government. The Prime Minister has a reputation for delegating decisions, sometimes without a proper policy framework. But I think some of the things that are going wrong is because the people around him, the senior civil service, has decided his abdicated responsibility, left a vacuum.

2:03and they've taken over. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and the French President are co-hosting a summit in Paris aimed at securing global shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz. Sakhir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are working to build a multinational coalition to protect tankers. There are growing concerns disruption in the region could push up shipping and insurance costs and keep prices higher for longer. The Times' Paris correspondent Charles Bremner says the summit is about sending a political message. They're meeting only not for very long. It's about 2 p.m. starting time. They will sit in front of a wall of screens in the Elysee Palace looking at their colleagues who are taking part virtually.

2:43And they're going to produce a statement at about 4 or 5 o 'clock, which has already been agreed. So it's pretty much a diplomatic ritual that we're going through here rather than a real negotiation. It comes as Donald Trump has told Hezbollah to act nicely, warning there should be no more killing during the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. The Lebanese government claims Israeli forces have violated the agreement with several attacks against villages in the country's south. Professor of International Relations at the LSC, Fawaz Jajez, told Times Radio the ceasefire is very fragile. Israel now occupies about eight miles of Lebanese territories.

3:19And it all depends really on the pressure that President Trump exerts on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not only to observe the ceasefire, but to begin the process of pulling out of Lebanon in the next few weeks and next few months. Police say three people have been charged in connection with an arson attack at a Persian-language media organisation in northwest London. 21-year-old Ashim McGuinness and Nathan Dunn, who's 19 and also from Watford, will appear in court later charged with arson with intent to endanger life. A 16-year-old boy from London who can't be named has been charged with the same offence.

3:54Remember, you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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