Baroness Smith of Basildon — Hansard

Lords Proceedings 15 July 2026

Message from the King

My Lords, I have it in command from His Majesty the King to deliver to your Lordships a message signed with his own hand.

Lords Debate 13 July 2026

Railways Bill

To help the noble Lord, we are discussing the Railways Bill commitment Motion.

Lords Proceedings 9 July 2026

Tributes: Lord Mackay of Clashfern

My Lords, it is with a profound sense of sadness, shared across the House, that I pay tribute today to one of the truly monumental figures of our nation’s legal and parliamentary heritage. The news of the passing of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, shortly before his 100th birth…

Lords Proceedings 7 July 2026 9 contributions

Historical Forced Adoption

My Lords, I shall repeat a Statement from the Prime Minister. I do not always repeat Statements; I just take questions. But given the nature of this Statement—in fact, it is an apology—it is appropriate to repeat it in full: “This morning in Downing Street, I met some of the mothers and adult adopt…

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord and the noble Baroness for their comments and their welcoming of the Statement. The noble Lord is quite right: the apology is the start of a process. I think we all agree that everyone has waited too long for this. Whenever I read about this or speak to women I know…

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Lords Proceedings 23 June 2026 13 contributions

G7 Summit

My Lords, I looked with some wry amusement at my notes, which start: “Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the generous and constructive suggestions?” Perhaps I should not always believe the notes I am given. I want to start—which I am sorry the noble Lord did not do—by congratulating the Co…

I am not sure that I can give the noble Lord further information beyond what I have already said—I will look at whether there is any more information I can send to him that can be in the public domain—but I think that shows our commitment to doing all that we can to help Ukraine because of the const…

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Lords Proceedings 13 May 2026

Senior Deputy Speaker

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, on his appointment. In doing so, I would like to take a few moments to pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Gardiner of Kimble. His has been dedicated work and service to this House to fulfil the role of Senior Deputy Speaker. His …

Lords Proceedings 29 April 2026

Prorogation: His Majesty’s Speech

My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, by virtue of His Majesty’s Commission which has been now read, we do, in His Majesty’s name, and in obedience to His Majesty’s Commands, prorogue this Parliament to the 13th day of May, to be then here holden, and this Parliament is accordingly prorogued…

Lords Proceedings 29 April 2026

Royal Commission

My Lords, it not being convenient for His Majesty personally to be present here this day, he has been pleased to cause a Commission under the Great Seal to be prepared for proroguing this present Parliament.

Lords Proceedings 22 April 2026 2 contributions

Introductions

My Lords, as the House is aware, three sitting hereditary Peers have received life peerages and a further limited number will receive life peerages in a future list. The purpose of the Motion is to allow any existing hereditary Peer who has received or will receive a life peerage to take their seat …

Lords Proceedings 21 April 2026 9 contributions

House of Lords: Legislative Procedures

My Lords, just over 15 years ago, there was considerable dissatisfaction here with the way our scrutiny work was being performed. The Leader’s Group was set up and reported in 2011, recommending improved focus and better organisation for more effective and efficient scrutiny. In the light of recent …

My Lords, leaving aside the question of whether that largely meaningless word “modernisation” is an appropriate one to use in this context, could the Leader of the House, in her consideration of these issues, give priority to effectiveness over efficiency? When it comes to legislation, Governments l…

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Lords Proceedings 20 April 2026 16 contributions

Security Vetting

My Lords, I will repeat the Statement the Prime Minister made earlier today: “With permission, I would like to provide the House with information that I now have about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as our ambassador to the United States. Before I go into the details, I want to be very clear w…

My Lords, I will do my best to answer the questions in the time available. First, in response to the noble Lord, Lord True, who complained about the timing of the Statement, he usually asks me to repeat Statements made by the Prime Minister as soon as possible. It was my judgment, given the seriousn…

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Lords Debate 15 April 2026

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

My Lords, I have it in command from His Majesty the King to acquaint the House that His Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, has consented to place his interests, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament …

Lords Debate 14 April 2026 3 contributions

Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, the Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Bill is a short but important piece of legislation, which has come to us unamended from the other place. It seeks to amend the statutory limit on the number of ministerial salaries available, currently capped at 109, to 120. The proposed change to 120 r…

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness the Leader of the House for her introduction to this Bill and for her very clear explanation of it; I can confirm that I support it and I can therefore be brief. As most of the House who have followed this will know—the noble Baroness alluded to th…

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Lords Proceedings 14 April 2026 11 contributions

Middle East

My Lords, I listened to both noble Lords’ speeches. We ended on one note and started on another. It was the appropriate place to end, as the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, did, on the catastrophic and heartbreaking humanitarian issues not only in Sudan, as he mentioned, but across the region, where people…

I thank the noble Lord. He is absolutely right that Pakistan has done a great service on this, and the role of the Prime Minister and other leaders in Pakistan must be recognised. Our Prime Minister did that and has thanked and praised them for their work in not the easiest of circumstances. The no…

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Lords Proceedings 13 April 2026 2 contributions

Clerk of the Parliaments

My Lords, on 24 July last year, I informed the House that Simon Burton had announced his intention of retiring from the office of the Clerk of the Parliaments with effect from 1 April this year. In November, I announced that Chloe Mawson would become his successor. I indicated at the time that there…

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the Lord Privy Seal in her elegant tribute to Simon Burton, our departing Clerk of the Parliaments. We are all sad to see Simon go. As the noble Baroness said, he joined the House in 1988. I checked: there are now barely two dozen Peers who were here when the you…

Lords Debate 10 March 2026 8 contributions

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill

My Lords, I will also speak to Motions B, C and D. Before starting on the debate on each Motion before the House, I thought it would be helpful to set the debate in context and provide an update on discussions and progress since we last debated the Bill. During our 41 hours of debate in Committee a…

Hear, hear!

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Lords Proceedings 2 March 2026 13 contributions

Middle East

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall repeat a Statement made in another place by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister. The Statement is as follows: “With permission, I will update the House on the situation in Iran and the wider region, and our response. The United Kingdom was no…

My Lords, that was an interesting set of questions, as their views were diametrically opposed. But one thing the whole House unites around is abhorrence of the Iranian regime. I do not think there is any dissent on our view on that. I was slightly puzzled by the comments by the noble Lord, Lord Tru…

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Lords Proceedings 24 February 2026 9 contributions

Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness and the noble Lord for their questions; I will try to answer as many as possible. I do not recognise the noble Baroness’s suggestion about delay in dealing with this. There are a lot of documents to be produced. The Government have been very clear that there is n…

I am grateful to my noble friend for his point about the staff. I tried to do it justice but, as chair of the committee, he did it much better than I could. It is important that there is no question that the committee and the House have full confidence in the staff and the work that they do. Yesterd…

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Lords Proceedings 10 February 2026 11 contributions

Standards in Public Life

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords for their questions. I understand why the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, was unusually able to contribute despite being late. He was only a couple of seconds late, and obviously I understand that the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, is at the funeral today in Orkney. …

My Lords, in all these things there needs to be a proper process. There is an issue around due diligence on Members being nominated from all parties; we all have to ensure that we have the right processes in place. The noble Lord, Lord Doyle, was approved by HOLAC on the information that it had avai…

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Lords Proceedings 5 February 2026 13 contributions

US Department of Justice Release of Files

My Lords, I thank both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord for their comments and questions. At the forefront of all of our minds are those who were victims of a vile paedophile and how powerful people had a network in which there was no respect and it was almost as if they were casual playthings …

I am sorry to disappoint the noble Lord: I do not have the answers to those questions for him, but I will get them. I do not think he has asked me about the severance pay, but I will ensure that he gets an answer. On the shareholdings, can I come back to him in writing? We will get an answer on both…

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Lords Proceedings 4 February 2026 14 contributions

China and Japan

I am grateful to both noble Lords for their comments. Those from the noble Lord, Lord True, clearly underline the fundamental difference between the party opposite and us. Let us just start from where we are. The fundamental difference is that the party opposite went from a golden age of engagement …

The noble Lord raises a number of issues, but the bottom line is that he asks whether engagement is better than stepping away and shouting. That is the fundamental difference between us and the party opposite. The kinds of issues he raises about investment, business and trade are important, but it i…

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Lords Proceedings 3 February 2026

Tributes: Lord Wallace of Tankerness

My Lords, I think the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, made a very powerful, heartfelt tribute. In his words, we all pictured the man that we grew to admire in this House. Paying tribute to friends and colleagues who have passed is never easy. When their passing is so sudden, unexpected and before their tim…

Lords Proceedings 2 February 2026

Tributes: Lord McFall of Alcluith

I am grateful to the Lord Speaker for that. It is a great pleasure for me, on behalf of these Benches, to pay tribute to my noble friend Lord McFall of Alcluith for his great service to this House as the fourth elected Lord Speaker. Yes, he is a noble friend, but he has also been a personal friend …

Lords Proceedings 12 January 2026 2 contributions

Election of Lord Speaker

My Lords, on behalf of the whole House, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on being elected our Lord Speaker. I look forward to working closely with him in his new role when he takes up the post next month. I know he will represent the House rigorously and will act robustly—as he is known …

Hers was a dedicated campaign and candidacy. Both candidates were an absolute credit to your Lordships’ House and I thank them. The campaign process was courteous and dignified, showing that, despite being the unelected House, we can run a good election. I also extend thanks to all the House staff i…

Lords Debate 8 January 2026 3 contributions

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

My Lords, I cannot be present in person today because of the snow and the increased risk of fracture should I slip. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak remotely and briefly on the Motion before us. The Motion implies that, despite our already having been generous with our time to an unprecede…

I do not back away from the phrase “heavily criticised”. I cannot believe that anybody in this House who has at least absorbed some of the media coverage of these debates has not accepted that there has been no general agreement about the positions that have been taken, and more importantly, about t…

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