Lords
Proceedings
5 February 2026
US Department of Justice Release of Files
My Lords, I agree with most of what the noble Baroness the Lord Privy Seal has said, but I have two specific questions relating to Lord Mandelson. One is: why was he allowed to retain his shareholding in Global Counsel during the time he was ambassador to the United States? Who made that decision, a…
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
12 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I hear what the noble Baroness is saying. Is she aware that the World Health Organization defines a safe abortion as
“meaning that they are carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the gestational age, and by someone with the necessary skills”,
and that recommendation 30 in it…
My Lords, I know the hour is late, and it might be as well to record for posterity that a number of us were prevailed upon to regroup our degrouped amendments to keep the number of groups at three instead of four. The quid pro quo, as far as I understood from the usual channels, was that we would be…
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
5 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
The noble Lord makes a very reasonable case, but is it not really an issue of proportionality and balance? He talks about the level of distress but did not really answer the points made by my noble friends Lady Lawlor and Lady Berridge. The fact is that this has affected approximately 100 women in t…
My Lords, before I discuss the substance of the amendments in this group, including my Amendment 461F, I want to make a brief observation. In my experience, both in the other place and as a Member of your Lordships’ House for a little over three years, the issues we are considering today in this gro…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I beg the indulgence of the Committee to raise what I think is an important point; I hope the Committee does not think it pedantic. I had not intended to speak but was prompted to by the excellent speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, and by my noble friend Lady Coffey’s reference to…
Lords
Proceedings
29 January 2026
UK-EU Customs Union
My Lords, it is with great pleasure that I rise in this debate to make my maiden speech. I should begin by giving thanks to all Members of the House for their warmth, their welcome and their generosity: to the Garter King of Arms, Black Rod, the Clerk of the Parliaments, the doorkeepers and all the …
Lords
Debate
28 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendments 223 to 226, and your Lordships’ House will remember that we debated the issue in these amendments in June of last year. The amendments have two aims: to provide parents with an effective means of escalating a formal complaint about a school when they are not …
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the amendment in the name of my noble friend on the Front Bench. When Section 149 of the Equality Act came into effect, it was seen largely as benign. It very reasonably imposed an obligation on public sector organisations to treat people with fairness and equality and to ensure …
My Lords, the noble Baronesses, Lady Brinton and Lady Thornton, cannot both be right. The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is making the case that the public sector equality duty is a tool to tackle racism. Yet, as the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, made clear, the appalling, racist events at Charing C…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure, as ever, to support my noble friend in her Amendments 436 and 437. She is an expert in intellectual property, but she might want to copyright the term “Wild West of street crime”, as we have got used to it.
Amendment 436 goes to the heart of a police accountability. That…
I am old enough to remember the last time that we looked at regional police forces. That was under the Minister’s erstwhile colleague, the right honourable Charles Clarke, I think, in 2008-09. There is some merit in the argument for amalgamating large forces. However, will the Minister confirm that …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the excellent amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Haslemere. Firearms officers provide a valuable and necessary service, and are an important part of UK policing. They do a very difficult and dangerous job and deserve our thanks. The current climate is not conducive to …
My Lords, forgive me, if I can beg your indulgence. In order for there not to be any confusion, I neglected to advise the Committee that my brother is a serving Metropolitan Police officer. I should have mentioned that earlier.
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
6 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the amendment in the name of my noble friend on the Front Bench. At this juncture, I also thank the Committee for its forbearance when I was not able to move my previous amendment on mobile phone theft. I put on record my warmest thanks to my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe for m…
As usual, the noble Baroness is making a cogent and persuasive case, but I do not think she concedes that we are not talking about suspicionless searches; we are talking about an expectation that violence will happen—there will be a violent incident rather than a seriously violent incident.
I just …
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will respond to Amendment 97 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and oppose it. It is over six months since we last debated this issue in Committee in June last year. I welcome the change in tack. A previous version of the amendment sought to abolish the reasonable chastiseme…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 January 2026
Defending Democracy Taskforce
The noble Lord will know that, first and foremost, we are taking measures through the police and crime Bill to protect the homes of elected and public figures, even such as Members of the House of Lords, from that level of intimidation and protest. We will examine the allegations that have been made…
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to contribute to Committee proceedings. My Amendment 352 is quite straightforward. It would omit the word “alarm” from the appropriate legislation, by way of a new clause. In the landmark 1976 case, Handyside v United Kingdom, the European Court of …
I recollect that we have always had a robust exchange of views. I did not in any sense seek to alarm the noble Baroness, but, from memory, she arrived late for a group of amendments, pontificated for a few minutes on issues that she had not heard and then—
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly because we have very important business in future amendments. I heartily endorse the comments of my noble friend on the Front Bench. Why were these proposals—which, after all, attract cross- party support, as indeed the 2018 legislation did—not brought forward for pre-…
My Lords, for the avoidance of doubt, I think we need to put it on record that everyone deprecates racially aggravated abuse of hard-working, decent emergency workers—that is taken as read. But the noble Lord is asking us to consider legislation when we already have a situation, under Section 66 of …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
26 November 2025
7 contributions
Sentencing Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendments 7 to 11. I support the amendments in the names of my noble friend Lord Sandhurst and my noble and learned friend Lord Keen, particularly Amendments 6 and 18 to 29.
I fully understand the need to address the issue of prison capacity and overcrowding. We are n…
Is not the corollary of the noble Lord’s argument that, as it stands, if the Government were to reject these amendments, in cases of serious and egregious crime the judge may be fully cognisant of the fact that they cannot give a custodial sentence to someone who is deserving of one, and therefore w…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
24 November 2025
5 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Jackson’s Motion for several reasons. The first is that he set out a compelling case for why this data should be both collected, if it is not collected, and published so that we have a much clearer idea about the nature of student visas. I did not hear any co…
Oh!
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
11 November 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, this amendment was comprehensively debated last week. It is, for the avoidance of doubt, about the efficacious deportation of foreign national offenders who have been released after serving a custodial sentence. On the basis of an unsatisfactory response from the Minister, I would like to …
Lords
Committee Stage
11 November 2025
3 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, this amendment is essentially about the product scope of the consultation. I will say at the outset that I am not a smoker, and I have no fiduciary or pecuniary interest in the sector, but I am sure the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, will be delighted to know that I am speaking on the basi…
Will the Minister give way? I am trying to be helpful. As the Minister has made some quite fair and emphatic comments about the toxicity of heated tobacco and its lack of efficacy in smoking cessation, would she be so kind as to put that in writing to me in order for members of the Committee to cons…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
5 November 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I believe this amendment supports the main thrust of the Bill, which seeks to help make our country safer and more secure, a goal that I share. It seeks to have a robust immigration system, and I commend the Government on that. The first step in that process is having the information that …
My Lords, I thank the Minister and all noble Lords who took part in the debate, in particular my noble friends.
If I can just clear up an issue for the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Sentamu, this amendment is colour-blind and is not about citizenship; in that respect, I hope I can reassure hi…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I am pleased to speak to Amendment 72 in my name and emphatically support Amendment 34 in the names of my noble friends on the Front Bench.
The amendment seeks to enshrine in law the responsibility of and duty on the Government to remove from this country those who do not have the automat…
That is being polite. They have had 16 months to develop a workable strategy, yet the one-in, one-out strategy is an embarrassment and an international joke. Plans to spend vast sums of money on asylum hostels and houses in multiple occupation continue, and we are welcoming Gazans and their families…
Lords
Debate
29 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will be brief; I had not intended to speak but I want to say a few words.
First, I completely agree with my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe’s excellent amendment; I pay tribute to her persistence and indefatigability in defending small and medium-sized enterprises. However, I find mysel…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Plant-based Diet
I thank the noble Lord for his question. He is right: it is important that we are able to support not just bees but the bee farming industry to ensure that that is a sustainable future. I do not have the specific details on where we are up to in banning the insecticide that he mentioned, but I certa…
Lords
Proceedings
27 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
My Lords, I welcome the Statement, and I believe that there is a consensus across the House for a position where Heathrow can achieve its full potential as not only a national and European hub but an international hub. I actually find myself agreeing with the Liberal Democrats to a certain extent th…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, Tony Blair had a pronounced interest in reducing crime. Two decades ago, as his strategy advisor, I spent two and a half years working with gifted teams of officials, looking at patterns of crime and offending, and how the many organisations within the criminal justice system were respondi…