17/11/2025
Today in Parliament
BBC
4.4 • 162 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alicia McCarthy reports as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announces sweeping changes to asylum policy.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.3 | Order. Order. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello there, I'm Alicia McCarthy, and this is today in Parliament for BBC Radio 4 for Monday the 17th of November, |
| 0:16.1 | where the Home Secretary announces big changes to the asylum system, |
| 0:19.7 | with plans to increase deportations |
| 0:22.0 | and tackle the pool factors bringing people to the UK. |
| 0:25.9 | To maintain the generosity that allows us to provide sanctuary, we must restore order and control. |
| 0:33.0 | But the Conservative leader says the plans don't go far enough. |
| 0:36.6 | She must be bolder. She must take steps to deter illegal immigrants from coming to Britain |
| 0:42.5 | and deport them as soon as they arrive. Also tonight, the government's flagship employment rights |
| 0:49.1 | bill suffers more defeats in the House of Lords. And the Speaker sympathises with MPs struggling to keep up |
| 0:56.1 | with the Chancellor's economic plans. It isn't normal for a budget to have been put in the press. |
| 1:01.5 | It's the OK-cocke-cocic budget. One minute's in, next minute's out. But first, the Home Secretary has |
| 1:07.3 | set out what she's called the most significant reform to the migration system in |
| 1:11.4 | modern times. Shabana Mahmood outlined plans to return asylum seekers if their home countries |
| 1:17.3 | became safe. To extend to 20 years the time people had to wait to apply to settle permanently |
| 1:23.0 | and to limit family reunification. The government hopes the restrictions will mean new safe and legal |
| 1:30.0 | routes can be created for refugees through work and study. Outlining her plans in the commons, |
| 1:36.1 | Shabana Mahmood said 400,000 people had sought asylum in the UK in the last four years, and over |
| 1:42.9 | half of refugees remained on benefits eight years after they |
| 1:46.7 | arrived. To the British public who foot the bill, the system feels out of control and unfair. It feels |
| 1:54.1 | that way because it is. The pace and scale of change has destabilised communities. It is making our country a more divided place. |
... |
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