Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
2 contributions
Defence Investment Plan
My Lords—
My Lords, one of the unfortunate realities is that the United States is moving away from the defence of Europe. Whether we like it or not, this is not just for this Administration; it is a danger that is likely to happen in future as well as the US looks to the Pacific. We understand that, and we un…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Middle East: Iran Conflict
My Lords, we must never forget that Iran holds innocent British citizens as political hostages in that country. I very much hope that, given increased stability in the region, the Foreign Office can work harder to release people such as the Foremans who have been unjustifiably detained and imprisone…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
World Ocean Day
My Lords, one of the increasing issues for our porpoises, dolphins and whales is that of increasing marine noise. Defra published a policy document at the beginning of last year, which I welcomed, but will the Minister tell us what progress has been made to protect all our marine mammals so that the…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 June 2026
Contracts for Difference (Allocation) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to listen to the Minister. He is the one Minister who, I know, if we asked for a one-and-a-half-hour explanation, he would be able to do it without notes because of his deep knowledge. When I looked at the Explanatory Note, I saw that it said that these regulations c…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will speak on leave to remain, but first I want to comment on the background policy papers the Government published on the upcoming immigration and asylum Bill. If you read the beginning of certainly one of those papers, it seems to suggest that somehow the UK suffers more with asylum se…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will speak on leave to remain, but first I want to comment on the background policy papers the Government published on the upcoming immigration and asylum Bill. If you read the beginning of certainly one of those papers, it seems to suggest that somehow the UK suffers more with asylum se…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 April 2026
Electricity: Domestic Pricing
I thank the noble Lord for that question. I cannot stand here and guarantee that that move will be brought forward by one year, as he suggests. It is a very sound idea. The future homes standard, which is now in place, is instead of the net-zero low-carbon standards that should have been implemented…
Lords
Debate
24 March 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, as well as moving my Amendment 31, I shall speak to my Amendments 33 and 34. I am very privileged to have a group all to myself. These amendments aim to safeguard Cornwall’s distinct constitutional and cultural position within the Government’s devolution framework. I thank the Minister and…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his comments, and I particularly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, for her excellent comments. This is the first time I have put down an amendment that has been rejected by the Government partly because it gets in the way of international treaties or something …
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
Ukraine: Reparation
This is a war that was meant to last three weeks, if that, and look at where we are in 2026, and what we are learning from—and how we are being inspired by—the people of Ukraine. This does need to end. Ukraine is ready for peace; it has said it is ready and willing for a ceasefire. It is Russia that…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
2 contributions
Onshore Wind Farms
The Government recognise the importance of repowering to maximise the benefits from our existing fleet of turbines. We are working to remove barriers in the planning system to accelerate repowering and undertaking updates to planning policy in England. In addition, the Government have announced chan…
The Government are already undertaking changes to planning arrangements to make sure that schemes can proceed faster and more immediately. In the case of repowering, that is obviously the difference between having to treat a scheme as a brand new development and one that can proceed very quickly, wi…
Lords
Proceedings
9 March 2026
Energy Markets
My Lords, the person smiling this evening is President Putin of the Russian Federation, because an economy that was hugely under pressure is going to be relieved when it comes to oil prices. In fact, I read this evening that Putin has offered to help Europe out with its gas shortage. I hope that wil…
Lords
Committee Stage
2 February 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, perhaps I could follow on from the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, very much in the same vein of argument. One thing that shocked me, reading some of the background to this, was that local transport authorities do not have this power at the moment. It seems remarkable. Yet Scotland and London, as…
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for that contribution. I am interested in what she said. Unlike many noble Lords here, I am not into London politics at all, but that speech almost painted an ideal situation in London between different levels of local authority. I presume that Great British Rail…
Lords
Proceedings
26 January 2026
Water White Paper
My Lords, one of the areas that the White Paper does not even mention is the voluntary sector, particularly citizen science, which has been fundamental in calling water companies to account—in the Wye valley and other areas. As well as not mentioning citizen science, the White Paper does not mention…
Lords
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Offshore Wind
My Lords, I also welcome the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and his expertise to the Front Bench. He is certainly a very effective parliamentarian, even if I do not agree very much with his narrative. But we will see where we get to there.
I also welcome the Government’s announcement, but it is importa…
Lords
Debate
19 January 2026
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
I do not think that any Bill on the ocean would ever have gone far enough for me, but I am very happy that this Bill is passing. I congratulate the Minister on her efforts to keep us calm when we were getting a bit overexcited about what we wanted to see in the Bill. I look forward to watching exact…
Lords
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Ukraine and Wider Operational Update
My Lords, let us be quite clear that Mr Putin does not want a ceasefire under any circumstances—it is not going to happen. Without wanting to sound trite, I pay tribute to the armed forces of Ukraine, which are defending our freedom in Europe with their lives, blood and treasure. I am sure we all ag…
Lords
Debate
12 January 2026
4 contributions
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
My Lords, I thank the Minister for going through those technicalities. These Benches welcome the effectiveness of devolution for this sort of implementation legislation, as I am sure the whole House does. The one question I have for the Minister, although she does not have power over it, is whether …
My Lords, we on these Benches support the intent of the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones. I hope the Minister will have a useful reply to it.
On plastics and the amendment tabled by my noble friend Lady Miller, one of the things that is clear is that, even in terms of human health…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
8 January 2026
2 contributions
Greenland
My Lords, the Prime Minister has been clear that Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and that the future of its constitutional arrangements is a matter for the people and Government of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark. The collective threat that we face in the Arctic is from Russia. Tha…
We are completely clear in the position that we take, as are our allies and partners, and the noble Lord will have seen that in the statement that was made a few days ago. Yesterday, the noble Lord reminded me that we travelled to the Arctic together at about this time last year or two years ago. I …
Lords
Proceedings
7 January 2026
Middle East and North Africa
My Lords, we primarily think about Russian aggression in Ukraine, quite rightly, but if we think of north Africa, despite the death of the Wagner Group, the so-called Russian Africa Corps is still very active in the Sahel and Libya and supports rather ugly regimes. It is there capturing important re…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 December 2025
5 contributions
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
My Lords, I was feeling quite confident that we would wholly outnumber the government Benches, but then I saw all the people at the back and thought maybe not. We will get good answers to our questions anyway, that is for sure.
As we all said at Second Reading, this is an important, good treaty, ar…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for responding. I understand why the Minister and the Government do not want this fairly simple Bill to become a Christmas tree of legislation; most of the amendments are probing amendments and not things on which we are ever going to vote, so I think we all agree on t…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
24 November 2025
ExxonMobil: Mossmorran
My Lords, it is clearly a tragedy for the petrochemical industry in terms of this plant in Scotland. However, in a way, it is only a precursor for the tsunami that is about to happen to the steel industry if we are not careful. As a third country to the European Union—which we unfortunately are now,…
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Willis, seems to be amazingly modest. If I had written it, it probably would have been far more complicated and have no chance of being passed by this House. But it really needs to be in the Bill.
New towns will be on the map and inhabited for hun…
Lords
Debate
20 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I thank the Defra Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for meetings around Clause 28. In the Bill, there is still a concern about industrial-scale biomass. I have been assured by the Minister that the 1967 Forestry Act stops that from happening. I have read the Act, and I am not tota…