Lords
Proceedings
18 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
My Lords, it is not good enough for the Minister to talk just about speculation, as his colleague did in the House of Commons. This comment was driven, first, by the Chancellor’s speech, which was not about economic policy but specifically about the Budget, and then by the interview that she did on …
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
13 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
You have made your point.
My Lords, I am not an expert on delegated powers, so I must admit to a bit of confusion. I hope that either the Minister or the Bill’s sponsor, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer—or maybe both—can help clear this up.
My understanding of what the Bill is trying to do is to enable the Welsh Se…
+11 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
13 November 2025
2 contributions
Economic and Taxation Policies: Jobs, Growth and Prosperity
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell, for securing and introducing this debate, even if its timing in peak Budget purdah means that its scope is necessarily either backward-looking or about broad principles. In responding to the Question from the noble Baroness, Lad…
The report that it produced stopped before the conclusion of the previous Government. It stopped at that Government’s last Budget and of course they had several months left to run. The OBR reported on the period it was asked to report on, yet the previous Government still had several more months to …
Lords
Debate
11 November 2025
3 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I am sorry that I am not able to support the right reverend Prelate on the first occasion she has tabled an amendment, and hope that I will be able to do so on future occasions. I will make a few points to balance the argument.
The right reverend Prelate and one or two noble Lords who spo…
My Lords, I will speak briefly to support my noble friend Lord Davies. I will also acquaint your Lordships with the information the Government set out in July when the Minister for Border Security and Asylum said what the Government were doing on some of the technology. We discussed in a previous gr…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 November 2025
Accidental Prison Releases
The Deputy Prime Minister did not have the accurate information, because the information was changing by the minute; but what was certain is that, when we knew exactly what the situation was, that is what we dealt with and we acted upon it.
We have 57,000 releases from prison—that was March 2024 to…
Lords
Debate
5 November 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I rise to support my noble friend Lord Jackson’s Amendment 35 and to pose a few questions to the Minister. I will not repeat what my noble friend said; he set out the case very compellingly.
I note from a Written Answer that the Minister said:
“The information requested is not available …
Can I just press the Minister on my specific question, which was not just about the published data but about the information that the department collects to make decisions about the risks from people applying for student visas? Does it collect any information at all about the propensity of people fr…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
6 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will not speak for very long on this, I hope. I also hope that the Minister does not feel that this is becoming a pattern—I am largely on the same side as him on this issue—and that I can bring a little bit of balance to the debate. Both noble Baronesses have mentioned the chief inspecto…
My Lords, I will briefly set out why I do not think this is a particularly helpful amendment, which I am sure the noble Baroness is not entirely surprised to hear. Despite what she said, I am not sure the amendment is entirely intended to be helpful.
This is an area in which there is a balance to s…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
30 October 2025
Heathrow Airport: Third Runway
A number of noble Lords are re-running the debate we had on Monday evening. The noble Lord is right that 72% of UK air freight by value goes through Heathrow because it is the only hub airport in Britain, and that is why the Government are so keen to expand it. The noble Lord is right that the value…
Lords
Debate
28 October 2025
9 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will start my remarks on this group where the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, finished, since that seems the most convenient way to do it. I will not rehearse my arguments on Amendment 26 at length because I spoke to it in Committee.
On co-operation with Europol, which is very important, …
I have a very short question. I have listened very carefully and the Minister has been very clear about the nature of the role. What powers will the Border Security Commander have when this Bill becomes law that they do not already have by virtue of being a civil servant reporting to the Home Secret…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
27 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
My Lords, I declare an interest as a non-executive chair of an aviation company, albeit one that does not operate from Heathrow. I have a couple of points to make. I strongly support what the Government are trying to do in expanding Heathrow. I was very surprised that the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeo…
Lords
Debate
21 October 2025
4 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I strongly support the case that has been made by the noble Lord for a number of reasons. I strongly agree with his opening proposition that the Government should take only powers that are absolutely necessary, and I will listen, as he will, to the Minister, when she sets that out.
I come…
My Lords, I have not spoken on this Bill before, and I was genuinely trying to be helpful to the Minister. She has just said that you cannot make an easy distinction between the use of force against things and people. That is exactly the point. If you give powers to be used against things, you will …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
21 October 2025
2 contributions
Alleged Spying Case: Home Office Involvement
My Lords, the reason why the Minister may be a little frustrated that Members of the other place and this House keep asking questions is because he does not give straightforward answers. Let me try to ask again the question that my noble friend on the Front Bench asked: was the Home Secretary aware …
That is not the question I asked.
Lords
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Great British Railways: Rolling Stock
The noble Lord’s recollection of what happened in his term of office might be quite good, but the fact is that the industry does not have much regard for what was published at the end of the term of the previous Government and is actively and interestedly waiting for something which relates to a rea…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 October 2025
Healthcare Provision: Inequalities
In a number of ways—I refer, for example, to the Mental Health Act, which is very significant in respect of the group we are discussing. We have already taken action in that regard in a legislative form.
However, the noble Lord is right. We started in a difficult place, but I am more than hopeful a…
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
5 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I am perhaps not as warm towards this amendment as the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, just was. It seems to me that it does give away its intention in the title,
“Primacy of the Refugee Convention”,
which fundamentally is an assault on whether we think Parliament has primacy in our view. …
I was not aware of that, but I am not sure it changes my argument. As we have just discovered by listening to the debates about Article 31 of the convention, part of the issue here is that the interpretation of the words is contested, as we heard from the points my noble friend Lord Murray set out w…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
5 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I rise to agree and disagree with a variety of noble Lords. I am sad to say that I often do not agree with the noble Lord, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, but on one particular thing he said, I strongly do, which is that since this Bill was introduced into Parliament, the Government’s policy on t…
On that point, briefly, it is good that we have the surcharge. It was brought in under one of the pieces of legislation I was responsible for in a former life. We can argue about the amount. For younger people in their late teens and early 20s, it is probably a reasonable amount of money. We looked …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I begin by thanking the hundreds of people who have written to many of us about the Bill. Their letters, often deeply personal, deserve our attention and respect: diolch yn fawr iawn—thank you.
I have also listened carefully, last Friday and again today, to the many thoughtful contributio…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 September 2025
Road Pricing
I am grateful to the noble Lord for his support of the policy that we have set out. I have been clear that, on many of the issues that he raised in his question, we as a Government are having to balance several objectives. We must always ensure fiscal stability and sustainability, motoring must rema…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
2 contributions
Independent Commission on Adult Social Care
My Lords, we have made it clear in the independent commission’s terms of reference that its chair, the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, must consider older people’s care and support for working-age disabled adults separately, recognising that services meet different needs. It is, of course, for her and h…
The noble Lord raises an incredibly important point; I would expect as much from his background in this area. It is fair to say that local authorities spend more than 50% on the working-age demographic, but he is absolutely right that the main focus—the news interest—tends to be on older adults. I r…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 September 2025
Child Poverty Strategy
My Lords, I will not be commenting on the future, because the child poverty strategy will look at the ways in which the Government will make changes, not just to the benefits system but across the piece, to tackle child poverty. But I say to the noble Lord, Lord Harper, that the benefits system has …
Lords
Debate
8 September 2025
5 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I was not able to be here at the opening of the debate on the earlier group, so I hope noble Lords will forgive me if anyone else has already said this, but I was delighted when I walked into the Chamber and saw the noble Lord still in his place. I have worked very closely with him on thes…
The Minister has made very clear his approach to the amendments, but I want to press him a bit. The Government accept that in some cases the courts are not drawing the lines in the right place, which is why the Government have suggested, as the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, referenced, that they will is…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
Refugee Accommodation: Move-on Period
With due respect, I thought I did try to answer the question from the noble Lord, Lord Young. Heads are shaking, but I am accountable for my answers. At the end of that 28 or 56-day period, individuals will have to leave that accommodation. That is a consequence for them. We have given support, dete…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 July 2025
Palestine Action Protests: Arrests
The purpose of Parliament, both the House of Commons and this House, is to pass legislation. We have done that with overwhelming majorities in both Houses of Parliament in favour of the proscription order—and the proscription order is clear. However, I am also clear that we must not conflate terrori…
Lords
Proceedings
17 July 2025
UK-France Migration: Co-operation
My Lords, I do not blame the Minister for slightly having a bit of fun at our expense at this stage in the political cycle. However, I caution him, given that in this Government’s first year the number of people crossing the channel has gone up by 40%, that when he eventually has to return to a prop…