Hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day,

from whether cutting legal migration is worth the economic cost to whether we're heading for another government-you-turn on student loans.

We'll also talk about the new leaders of your party and Cruz Beckham's Endless Birthday Parties.

And joining me are The Life and Soul of the Party that is at the Times. And they are Juliet Samuel. Hello, Juliet. How are you? Good morning, very well. Good to have you here. You're having some headphone trouble there. Oh, no, I just didn't think we needed those. And I'm also joined by Matthew Parris. Hello, Matthew. Hello, hello. How are you, Matthew? Very good. Very good.

I've seen you at parties. You're wild.

Yes, yes. Do you remember that hot tub?

It's a dangerous thing to say because people can assume that either one of us was in it.

And of course, we weren't. The real action was outside the hot tub, like always.

Let's move on before we got taken off air.

Start with a big story of the day that is emerging today.

Government figures published this morning indicate that legal migration is falling

based on the number of visas issued.

However, small boat crossings rose by 13% in 2025.

Some projections show that net migration could become negative by the end of the year,

and the Institute of Fiscal Studies has become the latest to warn that net zero migration

could create a 30 billion pound shortfall in the Treasury and effectively wipe out Rachel

Reeves's borrowing headroom.

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone?

Matthew, what should we think about this?

Look, because legal migration is falling.

We'll come to Channel Crossing is a minute.

Migration is falling, but even if it does fall, the economy is going to be in a mess.

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