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

and there's a lot to get into from the Home Secretary's asylum plans to reforms alternative budget,

while also talking about high-profile cancel culture, and my high-profile columnist today, not yet cancelled.

Are the brilliant James Marriott, hello, James. Hello, good morning to make it to the end of the show with my reputation intact. Fingers crossed, always a first time. And Libby Purvis, hello Libby, how are you? Hello, I'm planning to get cancelled soon. Yeah, you know, I think this is the place for it. Before we start, James, I wonder if you'd like to tell listeners what that is sitting on the desk next to you. It's a smartphone. A smartphone. James Marriott has a smartphone. Explain yourself.

Yeah, I'm actually feeling very depressed. Yesterday, as I started writing my column, I noticed my phone,

my dumb phone, which I've boasted about a lot, crowed over, some might say, gloated over,

lit up, displayed its own name for 20 seconds and then turned off and is not being able to be revived.

So I've now had to return to my work smartphone.

Yeah.

It's my main phone and I'm feeling addicted to it.

And it basically become everything I railed against. I spent half an hour in bed this morning, mindlessly scrolling Twitter. So, I mean, you could just not. Take Twitter off your phone. Turn on all the power saving features. There's nothing I could do. There's nothing you could do. I was helpless. Dear me, just because your dumb phone finally got too dumb. Let's crack on. We've got a lot of stories to cover. I want to start with the Home Secretary's asylum plans. There are a significant number of Labour MPs, about 25 so far, who are opposed to Shabana Mahmood's reforms to the asylum system. Here's what Reform UK's Zia Yusuf had to say about it, speaking to Times Radio earlier. Shabana Mahmoud sounds like a reform MP in the House of Commons yesterday.

Look, here's the bottom line.

Several Labour MPs have come out and publicly declared Shabana Mahmood's policies as races overall.

I do not think she's going to be able to get this past her backbench MPs.

Well, one of those unhappy backbench MPs is Kat Eccles.

Here she is also speaking to the station earlier.

It just feels that they are trying to just be seen to be doing something just to appease the electorate.

Libby, appeasing the electorate, that sounds awful.

Well, why else do people elect you if they don't want to be appeased?

I think it's very interesting what she's doing.

It doesn't go nearly as far as Denmark.

But ideas like saying immigrants will have to learn the language to a reasonable degree,

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