Morning briefing Monday 25th August

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 25th August. Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure over the small boat crisis.

0:44A YouGov poll in today's Times suggests 71 % of voters believe that he's handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56 % of Labour voters. The Prime Minister and his government have set out measures to speed up the asylum appeals system, but Labour former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett says the government has so far failed to offer a comprehensive answer or an understandable narrative. Paul Richards is a former Labour special advisor and has told Times Radio that options are limited. If there was a single simple thing that a government could do, any government would have, of course, done it by now.

1:23So there isn't an easy answer to this. You have to push at various doors and there is a multiplicity of policies that have to be tried. If you look at Farage or somebody like that's plan of pie in the sky, by sending people off to Ascension Island, whatever it might be. There aren't simple answers like this. It isn't something as simple as that. Proposed government sentencing law reforms are receiving a mixed reception. The bill will encourage judges to move away from prison time for sentences shorter than 12 months in an attempt to counteract overcrowding in prisons. Instead, criminals could be barred from going to pubs, concerts and sports events as part of community sentences.

2:04Michael Kill is the CEO of the Nighttime Industries Association and he's told Times Radio that he's not convinced it's practical. This needs to be something that's co-designed if it's something that's going to be implemented and we need to understand how the government are looking to implement it. As you can understand, policing is very thin on the ground at the moment. Security is an expense, an important expense. With Martin's Law, things like counter-terrorism coming into play, this is an additional burden and will be a challenge. US Vice President J.D. Vance claims Russia and Ukraine have made some significant concessions in the last few days.

2:40But the Kremlin's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has played down speculation about a potential meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders. Vladimir Zelensky marked Independence Day with a promise to fight on. Campaigners say a new strategy on violence against women and girls must also tackle child sexual abuse. Groups including Barnardo's and the NSPCC are warning that the two are inseparable, with around half a million children a year in England and Wales experiencing abuse. It's the final day of the Notting Hill Carnival, with the main parade taking place later. The carnival helps celebrate Caribbean culture and history.

3:19There were at least 140 arrests on the opening day. Police protection at the event is at an all-time high after two murders last year. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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