Daily briefing Sunday 17th May

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. Welcome to the Times Radio Daily Briefing on Sunday, the 17th of May. The Culture Secretary has told Times Radio she backs the return of Andy Burnham to Parliament.

0:45Lisa Nandy was out campaigning with Burnham in the Makerfield constituency yesterday. Her constituency, Wigan, is next door to Makerfield. If Burnham, currently Mayor of Greater Manchester, gets back into Parliament, he's likely to challenge Sakir Starmer for the keys to number 10. I'd love Andy to come back to Parliament. I've made no secret of that. I don't think he should have been blocked last time, and I said that at the time. I think that Greater Manchester's game was Westminster's loss and I want more people who are speaking for towns like ours at the heart of government, but that is not a direct challenge on my part to the Prime Minister.

1:22I think we need to pull together and work together as a team. Burnham has said previously he would like the UK to rejoin the EU, where Streeting, who's announced he will run for the Labour leadership, also wants Britain to reverse Brexit. The Conservative leader, Kemi Beysenhock, has told Times Radio that neither man has a plan for government. They're not really criticising Keir Starmer's agenda. The only thing different we've heard is about rejoining the EU. Again, a throwaway comment that doesn't seem to understand the huge implications of that, the years it would take to do that. They don't have a plan to solve today's problems, whether on welfare, energy, cost of living, the economy.

1:59And I think we're going to be in this sort of limbo and faceless for several years. Cameron Garrett from the polling organisation More in Common says if Burnham does win the Makerfields by-election, he'll have a good chance of moving into Downing Street. When we put all of the Labour leadership candidates, ones that we think might stand on a list, Andy Burnham is the standout character. Way in front, we see one in five saying that he would be their preferred choice compared to everyone else being fewer than one in ten. And business leaders featured in this year's Sunday Times rich list say Labour's infighting is self-indulgent and is causing serious damage to the economy.

2:39Among them is Sanjay Hinduja, who says that potentially three prime ministers for the UK in two years is not good for stability. Robert Watts compiled the rich list. It's just the inconsistency that they really, really struggle with. If you're running a huge business employing hundreds of thousands of people. You need consistency. You want to know what the regulatory framework you're operating is. And if it changes every few years, it's deeply damaging. It makes you put off decisions, you wait and see, you don't get out there and help drive economic growth. And you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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