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Today in Parliament

24/03/2025

Today in Parliament

BBC

Government

4.4162 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Susan Hulme reports as the Transport Secretary updates MPs after a fire caused major disruption at London's Heathrow Airport.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.0

Order! Order!

0:07.0

Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Today in Parliament podcast for Monday the 24th of March.

0:13.7

Coming up, there is concern in the Commons that the electrical fire which temporarily shut down Heathrow

0:19.2

may have exposed a dangerous weakness to

0:22.2

malicious actors who will undoubtedly have taken note of this weekend's events.

0:27.3

Also, the government gets the ball rolling on its landmark planning reform.

0:31.7

Make no mistake, this bill will transform the lives of working people and Britain's prospects for years to come.

0:40.5

And peers try to soften the blow of the rise in employers' national insurance.

0:45.4

Not exempting hospices from this tax is shockingly cruel.

0:50.8

But first, MPs have raised concerns that the electricity substation fire, which brought Heathrow Airport to a standstill, has revealed a weakness in the system that terrorists and others could try to exploit in the future.

1:05.1

The fire on Friday led to an 18-hour closure of Europe's busiest airport, canceling 1,300 flights and disrupting 200,000 passengers.

1:15.6

In a common statement, the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said Heathrow had the energy

1:21.0

requirements of a small city. She said the fire was exceptional and had taken out the whole substation,

1:27.9

but it was not the only electricity supply point for the airport.

1:32.0

The other supply points continued supplying to Heathrow Airport throughout the incident.

1:39.1

Heathrow's view was that this supply was insufficient

1:42.7

to ensure the safe and secure ongoing operation of all systems across the whole airport.

1:49.6

She explained that to use the other two supplies across the entire airport,

1:54.5

all the systems had to be switched off, powered up again and checked.

1:58.6

As for backup supplies,

2:00.1

the airport has a range of backup generators and

...

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