Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
Foreign Interference in UK Politics
On procedure, I suspect that on the Opposition Front Bench the lady doth protest too much, judging by what I hear about the precedents. It is rather a good thing that there is a vehicle, in the Representation of the People Bill, ready for the addition of the amendments that the Government are making…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2026
Political Party Finance and the Electoral Commission
The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, introduced the debate with his usual courtesy and wisdom, but he reminded us that, as a highlander, for all the courtesy, he carries a claymore. I cannot follow him in that—I am a boring lowlander.
I want to support the plea from the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, for urg…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Defence Investment Plan
My Lords, I was head of the Treasury’s defence division, and I welcome all this concentration on the money, but the document is actually about investment and where the money is to be spent. Ukraine is making, using, and losing 7 million drones a year. The life cycle of any particular model of drone …
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office
My Lords, I have not yet heard an answer to the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Fox, on conflict of interest. Is it acceptable for a Crown servant—an immigration officer, a Border Force employee—to be a director of a private security firm? If not, will it now be stopped?
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Refugee Move-on Period Pilot Evaluation Report
Reverting to the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, if the person granted asylum has only 42 days to navigate housing, employment and the markets, and to get himself a bank account and registered for universal credit, we need to help him by giving him all the documentation he will need f…
Lords
Proceedings
14 April 2026
Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules
My Lords, I too declare an interest as a RAMP associate.
The changes to asylum law, triggered by the statement of changes, was heralded by the Home Secretary as
“the most significant reform to our migration system in modern times ”.—[ Official Report , Commons, 17/11/25; col. 509.]
This is echoed…
Lords
Debate
14 April 2026
2 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords—
It has been said that the Americans are against the necessary revision of the 1966 exchange of letters. That is not my understanding. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that the text of the revised exchange of letters has been agreed by officials from the Foreign Office, the Ministry …
Lords
Oral Questions
25 March 2026
Small Boat Deaths: Cranston Inquiry Report
The Cranston report makes a number of recommendations. The actions to be taken my department in order to get the best possible outcome must consider all the recommendations together, so I am not going to mention any one particular action at this moment in time. However, the department is committed t…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Treaty Scrutiny in Westminster (International Agreements Committee Report)
I was making the point that the European Parliament has the right to vote on the outcome of any treaty negotiation, of course: treaties require its positive consent. Its debates informed ours. My point is not just that there is an accountability gap relative to the European Parliament, but that our …
My Lords, page 8 of our report states baldly that
“governments since 2019 have not listened to Parliament”
in respect of treaty scrutiny at Westminster. So the question before us is, “Does there exist, as is stated in the report, an accountability gap?” Further, do the Government recognise that su…
Lords
Committee Stage
4 March 2026
UK-India: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
My Lords, I thank the International Agreements Committee for its thorough and insightful report. I welcome the UK-India trade treaty and congratulate the Government on securing this agreement in a very short time. Inevitably when sovereign states negotiate, there is give and take and compromises, an…
Lords
Proceedings
26 February 2026
Resetting the UK-EU Relationship (European Affairs Committee Report)
My Lords, in his opening remarks, the noble Lord, Lord Ricketts, pointed out that the European Affairs Committee is the only committee in Parliament looking in detail at these matters. Given the direction of travel, the concept of a reset and the manifesto commitments made, while of course it is ent…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
4 February 2026
2 contributions
Public Order Act 2023 (Interference With Use or Operation of Key National Infrastructure) Regulations 2025
I thank the noble Lord, but I think I will stick to my line of argument. I do not think we discussed laboratories. Hansard shows that we did not.
It is important to remember that the demonstrator outside the factory or laboratory is already covered by the Act because he is obstructing the road. He …
My Lords, there is no doubt that the noble Lord, Lord Winston, expresses lots of practical and ethical opinions that we might agree with, but that does not change the fact that this statutory instrument is an outrageous abuse of secondary legislation powers. As the Minister knows, a fatal amendment …
Lords
Proceedings
15 January 2026
Iran
My Lords, the Minister wants to discourage young people from Iran who are fleeing for their lives from coming to this country on a small boat. I entirely agree, but the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, asked, and I did not hear the Minister answer: what are we going to do to provide some safe and legal way …
Lords
Proceedings
15 January 2026
Chinese Embassy
I appreciate all the constraints, and any expertise that I had is extremely out of date, but does the Minister agree that it is conceivable that those responsible for keeping an eye on the Chinese embassy might prefer it to be concentrated on one site, rather than spread over eight, nine or 10 all o…
Lords
Proceedings
6 January 2026
Venezuela
If a family member makes what one thinks is a serious mistake, it is often the case that one tries to avoid saying so in public. The Prime Minister is quite right not to attack President Trump in public. What matters now is that the Venezuelans get to decide who runs their country. Surely we can all…
Lords
Debate
5 January 2026
3 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, one criterion which the House may like to have in mind as we consider the amendments before us is whether they would prevent the Government ratifying the treaty. We have to pass the Bill before the treaty can be ratified, and some of these amendments would ensure that ratification could no…
Before the noble Lord sits down, could he help me interpret Amendments 19 and 33? Amendment 33 would not delay ratification of the treaty. Its wording is a little odd in places. When we talk about self-determination, we are dealing with concepts, not chaps, so subsection (5) of the proposed new clau…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
18 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
My Lords, the £570 million is a gross number; the net number would take account of grants to our own people benefiting from the scheme. I hope that the Minister will not be too distracted by the ghosts of Christmas past rattling their chains and coming up with absurd estimates of the cost of this sc…
Lords
Proceedings
25 November 2025
2 contributions
Migration: Settlement Pathway
What worries me most about this is what it will do to our society. I do not like the concept of a much larger group of second-class people in our country with restrictions on what they can do, under a sort of surveillance state, for much longer periods of time. I suspect it will be divisive in our s…
I am not disagreeing with the noble Lord at all; he is completely correct about France. I am just sad that one of the defining features of this country—something we used to be proud of—is slipping. I agree that the change does not take us out of line with a lot of our neighbours, but it is neverthel…
Lords
Debate
25 November 2025
5 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
This is all very fascinating. I hope we get back to Heligoland soon, and maybe the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, but I have to ask the noble Lord: where was he when his Government decided that the straightforward thing to do was to go for the cession of sovereignty?
It is probably best to let the Americans be the judge of their own best interests. They seem to be rather keen on this treaty and its ratification. The Secretary of State in Washington, who is also currently head of the National Security Council, called its conclusion a “monumental achievement”. He …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
20 November 2025
Asylum Policy
My Lords, the Home Secretary ended her Statement by saying that her reforms
“are designed to bring unity where others seek to divide”.
My greatest worry about them is that making refugee status only temporary, and subject to review every 30 months and deportation, will have the opposite effect. It…
Lords
Debate
5 November 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will say a word in support of Amendment 37, which would allow 56 days before someone who has been given asylum is thrown out. The six-month experiment of the Government trying to move to 56 days from 28 seemed to be very successful. I was therefore puzzled that its extension in July was …
My Lords, Amendment 42 seems to me to be something of a no-brainer. It would relieve the public purse in two ways. Local authorities might no longer have to find the cost of accommodation, and central government would no longer have to provide the pittance it does as a weekly allowance to people hel…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the Chagos Islands APPG. I give its secretary, David Snoxell, credit for persevering with the cause over the years. Unfortunately, having reflected carefully on the issue and the treaty, I have come to disagree on the conclusions formed by many of the g…
That is an unexpected source of encouragement, for which I thank the noble Lord.
Finally, and very importantly, the defence and security implications of this arrangement are clearly ringing alarm bells, as noted in the contributions from my noble friends Lord Lilley, Lord Blencathra, Lord De Mauley…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
I am grateful to the Minister, who is an expert on the Modern Slavery Act, as are the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord German. I am not. Can the Minister explain, as I still have not quite got it, why it is right that, if Section 29 survives from the Illegal Migration Act 2023, …
Lords
Proceedings
31 October 2025
Ukraine
My Lords, I join others in warmly welcoming the noble Lord, Lord Barrow, to the House and thank him so much for his inspirational maiden speech.
As we all know, it is now more than three years since Russia’s wicked invasion of Ukraine, which shattered the peace of Europe and the understanding on wh…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
Refugee Family Reunion Scheme
The advice I would give is that there are a number of routes that individuals can apply to in order to exercise their right to join their family. Those routes are available and can be exercised, but the family reunion automatic route we have now has been paused—not, in answer to my noble friend Lord…