Morning Briefing Wednesday 22nd April

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 Wednesday the 22nd of April. I'm Daryl Jackson. Donald Trump has announced an extension of the ceasefire with Iran.

0:46Posting on Truth Social, the US president said he'll continue to stick to the truce until Tehran submits fresh peace proposals. He made the announcement with just hours to go before the ceasefire was due to end today. Last night, the White House also confirmed that US Vice President J.D. Vance would not be going to Islamabad for a second round of talks with Iran. David Charter is assistant US editor of The Times. Iran's trying to set conditions that may not be acceptable to Trump for getting back in the room to talk. Clearly, this was the kind of impasse that led to the talks that were supposed to be happening tomorrow being called off.

1:25It became pretty clear during the day that J.D. Vance, he was leaving and he wasn't leaving. He was at the White House. He was back at his own house. It became pretty clear that he wasn't going anywhere. And then we got word just before Trump posted on True Social that Iran had definitively said we're not coming to Islamabad. Well, the U.S. president took to his True Social site again overnight. Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz has been totally blockaded. He claims Tehran is desperate for the crucial shipping lane to be reopened. The Prime Minister will face questions in the Commons later amid the ongoing fallout over the vetting of Lord Peter Mandelson.

2:03It comes after former Foreign Office Chiefs Ollie Robbins said there was a dismissive approach on vetting from Number 10. He also said there was an atmosphere of pressure to get Lord Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US over the line. Downing Street said Robbins made an error of judgment. Edward Morello, Liberal Democrat MP, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Times Radio the Prime Minister bears ultimate responsibility. To after the fact try and say that the issue was that the correct process wasn't followed or that Olly should have made the PM aware of pertinent information at an earlier point is almost an irrelevance because we all knew that Mandelson was a huge liability.

2:43He has a historic track record of being problematic. So the idea that suddenly the buck falls with someone else is ludicrous. It has always been the Prime Minister's decision to appoint Mandelson in the first place. Meanwhile, the Times has learned that the final set of the so-called Mandelson files won't be released to Parliament until mid-May. Here's the Times' political editor Stephen Swinford speaking on the State of It podcast. Parliament prorogues. Next week it rises. They all go off for these elections, which are going to be absolute carnage. And that means that these files are unlikely to come out before May 13th.

3:20So at the very point in the wake of the elections, Sir Keir Starmer is attempting to reset. Instead, there's going to be this volley of Mandelson files, all of which are likely to be pretty damaging for the government. And energy bosses could have their bonuses banned if they cause significant harm to customers. The government's announced reforms to strengthen regulatory powers. It means the regulator will be able to enforce faster redress for households let down by their supplier. Ofgem's never before had powers to hold executives individually to account. And you can hear more on all of these stories throughout the day on Times Radio.

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