Morning briefing Wednesday 27th 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. Good morning, this is your Times Radio Briefing for Wednesday the 27th of May. Former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has accused the government of lacking a coherent plan for the country.

0:43Wading into the leadership debate with a highly critical essay, he warned Labour faced consigning Britain to relegation from the Premier League of Nations. He accused ministers of lacking an economic plan and argued that manifesto commitments on workers' rights, net zero and taxation should have been abandoned after the election. Gerry Scott is assistant political editor for The Times. Well, look, I think it is damaging because, you know, Tony Blair, whatever you think of him, and there are many criticisms that can be made, is that only Labour leader to win free general elections. And his criticism is basically that Labour under Keir Starmer is lacking a project.

1:22And, you know, there's a really, really kind of damning line in there where he says that Labour is playing with fire, not only with their own future, but with the country's future. And that is a really, really damaging accusation to be made. Downing Street declined to comment on the essay, but said Sakhir was fully focused on delivering change for working people. Meanwhile, Sakhir is expected to outline government proposals for new restrictions on social media within the coming weeks. It comes as a consultation on a possible ban for under-16s ended yesterday. Tech industry insiders and civil society groups believe there won't be an Australian-style blanket ban, but instead restrictions on features like infinite scrolling, autoplay and location sharing for people below 16.

2:12Joe Morris is Labour MP for Hexham. He still believes a blanket ban is the best way forward. And I think it's more than just the time to bring in a ban. I think it's time to discuss how we approach not just the internet, but how we approach how it interacts with young people as well. We need to make sure that we're looking at the entire environment that's around our young people. Because, you know, as a constituency MP, I often speak with young people who are thrown into a kind of digital wild west where there's no protections, where there's a kind of often quite feral atmosphere on social media.

2:45it. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the Strait of Hormuz will be opened one way or another. The US claimed strikes on southern Iran on Monday night were done in self-defence, firing on missile launch sites and boats trying to lay mines, although Iran labelled them a gross violation of the ceasefire. Trump has already warned that there would be more attacks if negotiations failed. David Satterfield as a former US ambassador. The president needs an agreement, and the world needs an agreement, not so much on the nuclear issue, but rather on opening the straits and opening them on the basis of the status quo before this campaign began.

3:29Experts are predicting a 13 % rise to the energy price cap later. Cornwall Insight says that amounts to an extra£209 a year. Regulator Ofgem will factor in the impact of the Iran war. Earlier this month, Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey said it's important to be realistic about the worst case outcome.

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