Morning briefing Tuesday 25th November

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. Hello, this is your Times Morning Briefing for Tuesday 25th November with me, James Kitchen. The Chancellor has insisted she'll still be at the Treasury in two years' time, as she urged Labour MPs to unite and back tomorrow's budget.

0:47Rachel Reeves told backbenchers Labour needs to show voters it deserves a second term in power, adding MPs must stick together. The Chancellor also hit out at misogynistic armchair critics and said she's determined to cut the cost of living, NHS waiting lists and the cost of debt. The chair of Hospitality UK, Kate Nicholls, told Times Radio she also needs to cut taxes. Consumers are really feeling the pinch in their pockets, but more importantly, they're not feeling confident to go enough to go out and spend. They can't trust what the Chancellor and the government are saying about their intentions and what they're going to do next.

1:24So if the Chancellor really wants to get the economy moving, boost demand, give consumers confidence to go back out and spend. She needs to cut VAT. She doesn't need to be increasing taxes. If we saw that happening again, we'd start to see the wheels of the economy turning and you'd very rapidly get growth going through the economy. Meanwhile, allies of Wes Streeting are calling for a coronation to install him as Labour leader after the May elections. Ministers and senior MPs backing the health secretary have warned against a lurch to the left. They fear rival candidates, including Angela Rayner, would be too radical.

1:59The White House says talks to end the war in Ukraine have been productive, but there remain a couple of points of disagreement. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt insisted there's a sense of urgency, adding Donald Trump wants to see this deal come together and to see this war end. It's understood Washington and Kiev have drawn up a new 19-point peace plan to replace previous proposals that were backed by the US president. The former US ambassador to NATO, Ivo H. Dalda, told Times Radio Disaster might have just been averted. I don't like it when the United States is even-handed. There is nothing to be even-handed between a victim of the war and an aggressor on the war.

2:41That's part of the problem of the approach that President Trump has been taking since the very beginning, this idea that somehow the two sides are to blame equally, or even worse, that Ukraine is to be blamed more for a war that Russia started. The widow of the cricketer Graham Thorpe claims he'd still be alive if he'd had better support after being sacked as an England coach. The batting legend took his own life last year. His mental health had deteriorated after his dismissal in the aftermath of England's defeat in the Ashes in 2022. Amanda Thorpe says the ECB should have done more to support him.

3:17She was speaking exclusively to our reporter Will Hobbs. After playing 100 tests and over a decade as an England coach, Graham Thorpe found his sacking a cliff edge, where the cricketing family he'd known for 30 years disappeared. Though the ECB did extend his health insurance to cover 10 online counselling sessions as a severance agreement, Amanda Thorpe told me that was woefully inadequate. The whole mental breakdown of I'm no longer in that family. So if he'd had just a little bit of the support framework, to lean on a bit, to just transition a bit more, it would have made all the difference.

3:55The inquest into Thorpe's death did not criticise the way his contract had ended. In a statement, the ECB says it has met with Amanda to discuss her concerns and the inquest was conducted with full ECB support. And more than£700 million is being spent at Hinkley Point C on measures expected to save fewer than one salmon a year. The nuclear power plant will feature an acoustic fish deterrent along with a fish recovery and return system because of strict planning conditions pushed by wildlife bodies. And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

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