Morning Briefing Monday 22nd June

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 morning briefing for Monday 22nd June. Zakir Starmer is said to be preparing to announce a timetable for his departure as soon as today.

0:45Peter Carr, the business secretary, effectively confirmed the prime minister was considering his resignation after reflecting on political realities over the weekend. US President Donald Trump has taken to social media saying Zakir will resign. Gavin Barwell is the former Conservative minister and chief of staff to Theresa May. He says even Starmer himself will recognise the writings on the wall. There's always been like an iceberg. There's always more people who think that privately but haven't said it publicly. And I think the scale of Andy Burnham's victory in the Maker Fiat by-election has shown Labour MPs that he could potentially make a big difference to their fortune.

1:19So I think time's up. It's just a question of the Prime Minister coming to terms with that. And you think about Thatcher or Blair or my old boss Theresa May or Boris Johnson or Liz Truss jumped when they worked out that they were going to be pushed. And I'm sure the same will be true in this case. Mark Littlewood is the director of Popular Conservatism. He wonders whether a contest would benefit Andy Burnham more than a coronation. It seems pretty evident. I mean, I'm cautious in this chaotic world of British politics to make any firm predictions, but that Burnham would win any leadership contest.

1:50But might you almost want to confect a contest such that, I don't know, for sake of argument, Andy Burnham beats Wes Streeting in a six-week contest and therefore enters No. 10 Downing Street with sort of some form of democratic legitimacy going beyond 20 ,000 or so people voting for him in a single parliamentary constituency. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says great progress has been made during talks with Iranian representatives in Switzerland. The first round of discussions has concluded after Donald Trump waded in. He's threatened to resume attacks on Iran if it doesn't, in his words, stop its highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble.

2:28Cedric Layton is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former deputy director of the National Security Agency. He told Times Radio it doesn't seem any progress towards peace or a change to Middle East has been remotely made. When you look at the way J.D. Vance has formulated this, it makes no sense. You know, what you're looking at is a situation where the Iranians clearly want to resume some kind of a fight, not only with Israel but possibly with the United States. They want to continue to control the Strait of Hormuz and by extension everything that happens in the Persian Gulf, they will not be part of a new world order, at least under the current regime, when it comes to the Middle East.

3:06So I think that's an impossibility right now. An amber extreme heat warning has come into force across central and southern England and some of Wales where being warned temperatures could reach 38 degrees later this week in places coupled with high humidity. At the World Cup, Cape Verde chalked up another shock result by drawing with Uruguay, two all in Miami, and Wyndon Clark has won his second US Open golf major, holding off compatriot Sam Burns by a single shot. You can hear plenty more of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:49This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in our hands, but return on investment, not so much. So how do you get beyond the hype and deliver AI that powers reinvention and growth across your business? Strong foundations unlock AI's potential. That's why PwC takes you further with tech, strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk Here's a tip for you. There's a podcast out there with fans waiting to be your next customer.

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