Morning briefing Monday 18th 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 This is the Times Radio News Briefing for Monday, 18th May. The Times is reporting that allies of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham have accused West Streeting of trying to derail the mayor's leadership ambitions by reopening Labour's Brexit divisions.

0:49Following his resignation as Health Secretary, Streeting called Brexit a catastrophic mistake and urged Britain to rejoin the EU. too. Burnham's camp claims the comments are a deliberate plot to damage his chances in next month's crucial Makerfield by-election, which the mayor must win to enter Parliament and contest the leadership. John McTernan is a former advisor to Tony Blair and gave us his reaction to this. I think that's a hysterical response, to be honest. Wes is a London MP. Half the party membership, low party membership in London, and something like 95 % of the low party membership think we should rejoin the European Union.

1:27So he was doing what our leadership contenders should do, which is play to his constituency. As the internal feud escalates, one cabinet minister warned it is threatening to destabilise the Labour Party, with Prime Minister Sikir Starmer currently weighing up whether to announce a timetable for his own departure. Rachel Reeves will scrap plans this week to increase fuel duty by 5p a litre from September. The reversal is expected to cost£2.4 billion. Political correspondent at The Times, Max Kendix, explains. It's something that we expected a while ago, which is a reversal of the move that Rachel Roof did in the budget to phase out the 5p cut in fuel duty, which was introduced at the last energy crisis because of a war abroad.

2:13President Trump has issued another ultimatum to Iran, saying the clock is ticking for Tehran to accept a deal to end the war. The president spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, after returning from China with no breakthrough in negotiations. He wrote on Truth Social that for Iran, the clock is ticking and they better get moving fast, or there won't be anything left of them. He also added in capital letters, time is of the essence. He also shared an AI-generated video clip of a US warship firing at and destroying an Iranian fighter jet. Dr. Jonathan Shanzer is executive director of the foundation for the defense of democracy and told us that the U.S.

2:52and Israel will be weighing up their options. The question really is whether the U.S. in particular and the Israelis are prepared for the volleys of ballistic missiles, not just at Israel or at American ships, but also at all of the Persian Gulf states that have taken quite a bit of incoming over those 40 days of warfare. I wouldn't question whether he has the capability to drop a lot more munitions on Iran. The Times is reporting that an official review will reveal that Britain's HS2 rail project went disastrously wrong due to political pressure and a costly over-engineered design that was aimed at building the world's best railway.

3:33In response, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to announce a reduction in the train's speeds in order to cut costs, which will end up delaying the service being launched until 2035 between London and Birmingham. There's more on these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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