Lords
Committee Stage
22 June 2026
Financial Services and Markets Bill [HL]
My Lords, I will speak briefly as a member of the Delegated Powers Committee, which has produced a report on this Bill. That report concerns especially Clause 3, but it raises general issues that fall within the scope of the amendment that my noble friend has moved from the Front Bench. My noble fri…
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
State of Extremism Report
That is an extremely welcome Answer. Does the Minister not agree that the antisemitism emergency is being driven not only by hostile states but by hostile non-state actors such as Hezbollah and Hamas and their agents here? Is it therefore not essential, as he says, that the report names them to ensu…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, the antisemitism emergency, as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation has described it, and the balkanisation problem of ethnic and religious division—perhaps I should say balkanisation crisis—has haunted today’s debate on the King’s Speech and clearly concerns this House deeply…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, the antisemitism emergency, as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation has described it, and the balkanisation problem of ethnic and religious division—perhaps I should say balkanisation crisis—has haunted today’s debate on the King’s Speech and clearly concerns this House deeply…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, my Amendment 765, supported by the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, would delete Clause 42(4). I will briefly read the subsection, as it is not very long:
“Regulations under subsection (3) may make any provision that … could be made by an Act of Parliament, and … would not be within the legislati…
Would the noble Baroness perhaps like to make it clear whether she believes that it is inappropriate for the sponsor of the Bill to reply to the question I have just put in Committee?
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 151, which is supported by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Fox and Lady Hollins. It was also referred to approvingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, in her earlier remarks. My amendment would prohibit medical professionals fro…
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 419. It is rare for an amendment to succeed before it has even been moved, but so it appears to be in the case of this amendment, which would compel the Government to publish a counterextremism strategy. In Committee, I tabled a similar amendment, to which the …
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
2 contributions
Counter-Extremism Strategy
My Lords, I am pleased to have the opportunity to open this short debate on the consideration given to the introduction of a counterextremism strategy. The usual form on these occasions is to describe the issues and ask some questions. However, the issues I want to describe and the questions I want …
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Goodman of Wycombe, on introducing this debate. A serious discussion on this is long overdue, and I thank him for all his work and leadership on this and the many colleagues who I am looking forward to hearing who have been very involved in it as well. I…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
2 contributions
New Homes Target
My Lords, an estimated 309,600 net additional homes have been built in this Parliament, but we recognise the need to push further. We are driving progress through bold planning reforms, including the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, and a record £39 billion investment in social and affordable h…
New measures were introduced in the Planning and Infrastructure Act to make sure that we deal effectively with nutrient neutrality. We have had to do this without causing the impact on housebuilding that had been done under the previous Government. We have taken the steps needed. We have the nature …
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 113, which concerns a matter that has not previously been raised in the context of mental capacity, or I suspect my amendment would have been grouped earlier; it is about codes of practice. To explain it, I ask any noble Lord interested to turn to Clause 39(2) …
I apologise to the noble and learned Lord if he has already answered the question about my amendment. I would be grateful if he would clarify his view of Amendment 113 in relation to the code.
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 438E, I will speak also to Amendments 438EA—which the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, has been kind enough to support—and 438F, 454A and 454B about non-violent extremism.
Right at the start, the term “non-violent extremism” requires a bit of definition. Noble Lord…
My Lords, this has been an appropriately sombre debate given the scale and sweep of the challenges described. I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Foster and Lady Fox, the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, as well as the two speakers from the Fro…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, there is an unreality about this debate that gives rise to a question for the sponsor of the Bill and the Minister. The unreality is this: the noble Lord, Lord Birt, has made the case for his amendments, and my noble friend Lord Harper and others have made the case against them, but there …
The noble Baroness, Lady Berger, is quite correct. That is exactly what happened in the Select Committee. For my sins, I sit on a surfeit of committees, including the Delegated Powers Committee, which drew attention to this very deficit in the Bill. So the question for the noble and learned Lord, Lo…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
It may be helpful for the Committee if I simply read, very briefly, for the assistance of considering this amendment, what the former Chief Coroner of England and Wales, Justice Teague, said about the background to the decriminalisation of suicide when giving evidence to the Select Committee. I thin…
Lords
Debate
9 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I have an amendment to which I have not yet been able to speak. Surely it is right and proper that those of us who have tabled amendments should be able to speak—especially where, as is true in my case, a noble Lord was a member of the Select Committee that examined this Bill. If the Committee will …
I will be extremely brief but, as I said, I have tabled an amendment and have been waiting patiently to speak to it, if I may. My Amendment 394 would require the assessing doctor to arrange, and require the person to attend, a consultation with a palliative care specialist. Like the noble Baroness, …
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I strongly commend the report of the noble Lord, Lord Walney, which I have read. My purpose in speaking, very briefly, is to interrogate Amendment 369, in the light of what we already have.
What we already have was very well put in a report by David Spencer of Policy Exchange, the directo…
Lords
Proceedings
7 January 2026
Middle East and North Africa
Returning to Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Paul Ovenden, who was until recently the Prime Minister’s own director of strategy, wrote the following remarkable paragraph:
“What I knew of his plight during my time in government was largely down to his status as a cause célèbre beloved of Whitehall’s sturdy, cle…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 January 2026
Muslim Brotherhood
That is an interesting question from the noble Lord. I do not wish to give him an answer today, but I will examine that issue for him. The appointment of the individual concerned is a matter for a ministerial colleague, so I will get back to the noble Lord on that issue.
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will be extremely brief. Rather than speak to my own Amendment 229, I simply suggest to the Committee that the bulk of the evidence we heard in the Select Committee suggests that the amendments that have been put forward and debated in this group are extremely important and essential. I …
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, there is probably one thing we can all agree on today: everyone’s frustration with the process of evidence giving. I was hugely frustrated when the committee in another place was looking for evidence but deaf and disabled people’s organisations were not able to give evidence, despite makin…
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
Economic and Taxation Policies: Jobs, Growth and Prosperity
My Lords, we recently celebrated the centenary of the birth of Margaret Thatcher. I think we all realise that we could do—as many people say today—with another Margaret Thatcher to deal with the mess confronting us. We certainly need her ability to centre on the economic problems of the country and …
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, we face a tragic dilemma. On the one hand, advocates for the disabled and several royal colleges voice persistent concerns about the risks of abuse that the Bill’s legalisation of assisted suicide would create. On the other hand, as we have heard, are dreadful cases of individuals sufferin…
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I rise, as my noble friend on the Front Bench said a moment ago, to speak to my Amendments 85A, 88B and 88C, which seek to effect the recommendations of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, of which I am a member, on this Bill. I shall speak to them briefly.
The amendment…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Migrants: Hotel Accommodation
I thought I was going to get a “two for” there. All accommodation meets relevant legal requirements, as well as contractual standards, to be safe, fit for purpose and properly equipped. The contractual standards are contained in the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts.
Perhaps the noble Lord could ask the previous Home Office Ministers under the last Administration, because all the contracts with the current asylum accommodation were signed by the previous Ministers. I am very happy to look at the issue, but I repeat, for the avoidance of doubt, that all the contr…
Lords
Debate
11 June 2025
Holocaust Memorial Bill
My Lords, I support Amendments 4 and 4A, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Verdirame.
This has been a passionate debate. It is possible to believe that in the course of time a memorial and a learning centre will be established in Victoria Tower Gardens, they will be a great success and we will all look…
Lords
Debate
2 June 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, from this side, I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Harper. Whether or not he always agrees with the indefatigable noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, I hope that he will find this House capable of always disagreeing well.
It is not so much a declaration of interest as…