My Lords, is it not clear that this is a welcome step forward, but that it cannot be the end of the story? We have to reaffirm our commitment to 3% by the end of this decade, and 3.5% by the middle of the next decade, as firm commitments of this Labour Government, and that in the period ahead we wil…
My Lords, I declare an interest in that my wife was a board member of the English National Ballet for many years. I want to follow up on the original Question. It is the case, as the Home Office would know if it bothered to consult the ballet companies, that its rules do not allow visas to be grante…
I will just say very briefly: what a load of hypocrisy from the other side of the House. I was a member of Cumbria County Council from 2013 onwards. In 2021, a Conservative Minister took a decision to ignore our wishes and create two unitary councils in Cumbria instead of what would have been the mo…
My Lords, I join with others in saying how sad it is to say goodbye to the noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso. He will be much missed, particularly for his contributions on Africa and the global south, and for his contributions to debate, as his powerful speech showed today. It was quite excellent.
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My Lords, I will seek to be quick, not just because we were advised to be so but because I find myself in former permanent representative corner, and going first in this company is a bit dangerous.
I have a few quick points, not least as a new member of the European Affairs Committee, under the mar…
In fact, it was jointly negotiated by member states and the European Commission. I was there for all nine days of the negotiations in the Heysel stadium, so the noble Lord is wrong.
My Lords, I warmly congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gill, and the noble Lords, Lord Docherty and Lord Doyle, on their excellent maiden speeches. I look forward to that yet to be made, and to the valedictory speech of the noble Lord, Lord Offord.
Under a customs union, the EU would strike deals…
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on producing this White Paper and on putting into effect the excellent work that Sir Jon Cunliffe did in his review.
The water industry has been an example of the worst of the capitalist system—not value creation but value extraction in a major way. Obviously…
My Lords, I accept the incrementalism of the plan, but can the Minister give us a little more detail about how it will be managed? What will be the role of the northern mayors? Is funding to be solely from the Treasury, or will it be regionally based? Are the Government exploring how the railway can…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell, for initiating this important debate, and I congratulate him on his speech and his book. This is, of course, a very problematic time for the UK economy; we recognise this from all sides. We urgently need more growth and job creation. Yet…
My Lords, I apologise for delaying the Committee for another four minutes, but my own Select Committee was cancelled at short notice at 4 pm, so I was able to come here and listen to the considerable wisdom on an issue with enormous implications for the future. In the four minutes, I have time to co…
My Lords, I rise with some trepidation, looking across at the new Minister, as we know that she not only has the face of an angel but has balls of steel. I could apply both of those descriptions to the noble Baroness, Lady Hunter, as well. I thought the Minister made a wonderful maiden speech, so I …
My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of the Royal College of Music, one of our leading conservatoires, ranked number one in the world QS rankings for performing arts. That we are able to be a global leader in this way, a huge source of soft power for UK plc, is because of the health of our music…
LordsOral Questions10 September 20252 contributions
My Lords, the Government will publish a strategy in the autumn to deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty. As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty. This includes an e…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his encouragement on what the Government have done so far. It is significant. As he knows, we have already committed to extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of universal credit from September next year. That alone will lift 100,…
My Lords, I speak briefly to make an apology. I have Amendment 71 in a later group, but I have to catch an Avanti train to Carlisle—and that, as my noble friend Lord Hendy will know, is a bit of a hazardous process these days. So I probably will not be here for the amendment that I have tabled, but …
My noble friend is right to point out the long-standing and long-term challenges that we face in fiscal policy. As the noble Lord opposite said, the OBR set out some long-standing economic realities in its fiscal risks report this week. That is why it is so important that we are committed to ensurin…
My Lords, I welcome what the Lord Privy Seal has said about Ukraine, the role of the Americans in Ukraine and—if I might add—the role of the British in keeping the Americans onside in support of Ukraine. But is it not the case that, if one looks at this period as a historical episode, what is most s…
My Lords, it is a great pleasure and something of a challenge to follow the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, in this debate. Indeed, it is something of a challenge to follow the 50-odd other contributors whom we have had today, because there is little left to say that has not already been said. In that resp…
I came into this debate by chance, but it seems to me that this is part of a very undesirable development: an attack on the principle of equality, diversity and inclusion policies. These principles are at the heart of my politics. I have fought for racial equality ever since I was a student, when I …
Well, I do not quite see how passing this amendment is going to solve the problem; let us put it like that.
It seems obvious that we have a technological revolution under way, and we have to consider how best we can protect the creative industries in that situation. It is a completely different world that we are now moving into. Peter Kyle is saying that AI copyright needs properly considered and enforcea…
I thank my noble friend. He will remember that the original idea was to have through services from the Midlands, the north, Scotland and the west of England, and sleeper services too, but they were discontinued before many of them started operating because the business case and the economics of them…
My Lords, will the noble Baroness accept the congratulations that she should convey to our Prime Minister on this very important step in rebuilding our relations with the European Union? They are pragmatic steps, but they open up the way to great future co-operation. For example, the framework of al…