Morning briefing Thursday 14th 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 Times Radio's morning briefing on Thursday the 14th of May. The Health Secretary, Wes Streisand, is expected to offer his government resignation this morning, ahead of a potential bid for the Labour Party leadership.

0:47Streisand needs to secure the support of 81 MPs to mount a challenge in what could be a three-way battle featuring the Prime Minister and either Andy Burnham or Ed Miliband. While some 87 MPs have so far publicly called for Sir Keir Starmer's resignation, they are not united behind a single candidate to replace him. Speaking to Times Radio, the Labour MP John Slinger urged Streeting to back down for the sake of the party and the British economy. We're talking about the leadership of the fifth largest economy in the world. Businesses have contacted me and expressed their deep concern about any political instability.

1:24These are companies that have billions and billions of pounds to invest. And we are at risk in the Labour Party of focusing inward, focusing on personalities and not focusing on the task at hand. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, is also expected to make his move. But two Labour MPs in Manchester have denied speculation that they were preparing to quit Parliament to create a vacancy for him. One of them is Afzal Khan, who has a majority of more than 8 ,000 in Rushome. The Times political correspondent Aubrey Allegretti says even that seat would provide no guarantees for Burnham. It's in the neighbouring constituency to Gorton and Denton, which obviously Labour lost to the Greens earlier this year.

2:07And while Andy Burnham is an eminently popular figure in Manchester, reform took huge swathes of Greater Manchester and the councils within it in the local elections last week. So I don't think it's fair to say that he would walk it. The Manchester Withington MP Jeff Smith says he too would not be willing to sacrifice his seat for Burnham's potential return to Westminster. President Trump's first official engagement in China today will be an arrival ceremony with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. The two leaders will also hold talks before a state banquet.

2:43Tariffs, tech and the Iran war are all expected to be on the agenda. But Catherine Thompson, a former senior official at the Pentagon, says the future of Taiwan will be President Xi's priority. You could see the US give on Taiwan because if it becomes a situation where that's the only path to an economic deal. And the president, I think, has kind of alluded to that in some of the commentary leading up to this summit. And it just goes to show, right, like these issues are not separate dialogues. They're not separate tracks. They're deeply interwoven. Two UK police forces are to trial the world's first roadside laughing gas breathalyzer.

3:19The device can detect whether a driver has inhaled nitrous oxide within the previous two hours. It'll be tested by Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary as well as Thames Valley Police. And Times Radio has become the fastest-growing national news station over the first quarter of this year. According to figures released by RAJAR, the industry measurement body, listenership increased by 11 % compared to the previous three months to achieve a near-record reach of 604 ,000 average weekly listeners. There's more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

3:58This 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.

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