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Episode details

News,03 Aug 2026,37 mins

Could Reform Use The Navy To Stop Small Boats?

Newscast

Available for over a year

Today, Reform have announced plans to use the Navy to stop small boat crossings. They suggest, that if they are elected, military personnel would accompany migrants back across the English channel, overriding French objections if necessary. Their opponents have said the plans are unworkable and come at a time when the party has been under pressure. Nigel Farage has been facing questions about his handling of donations and the party’s finances have been under wider scrutiny. James and Henry unpack the policy and look at why Reform has had a difficult summer. Plus, what happened when around 60,000 migrants tried to cross into Spanish territory from Morocco in one go? James is joined by Aitor Hernández-Morales, senior reporter at Politico and Greg Holyoke, Middle East North Africa specialist for BBC Monitoring to discuss Thursday’s migration crisis in Ceuta. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480. New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was James Cook. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Shiler Mahmoudi and Anna Harris. The social producer was Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The technical producer was Jonathan Greer. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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