Lords
Proceedings
14 July 2026
Death of Ann Widdecombe
My Lords, no 78 year-old woman deserves to be bludgeoned to death in her own home. The whole House will wish that the search for anyone who may have incited or abetted her cowardly killer will be far-reaching and remorseless and their punishment unbending. To those who sneered about Ann Widdecombe a…
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
Tributes: Lord Mackay of Clashfern
My Lords, I thank the Lord Privy Seal for her warm tribute to our late beloved friend and colleague, Lord Mackay of Clashfern. When I say “our” beloved colleague, I mean all of us—all here who knew him and heard him for over 40 years as a Member of this House. I can think of few, if any, Peers who w…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
2 contributions
G7 Summit
My Lords, I thank the Lord Privy Seal for being here to answer questions on this Statement. In these uncertain times, I wish her well for continuation in office—and the Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms, who has run away but I hope will be back.
The Statement was made by someone who did not attend the summit and in the absence of the Prime Minister—a decent man forced from office by self-interested colleagues who owed their place in Parliament to him. As someone else once said at that same podium in Downing Street, “them’s the breaks”. Many…
Lords
Proceedings
13 May 2026
Senior Deputy Speaker
My Lords, I am absolutely delighted to support the Motion from the noble Baroness the Lord Privy Seal in respect of the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby. I think I can genuinely say that everybody on this side is absolutely delighted to welcome him to his place, for many reasons: not just because he is act…
Lords
Proceedings
21 April 2026
House of Lords: Legislative Procedures
I do not seek to curtail freedoms. I do not know whether there is anything specific the noble Lord has in mind. In a House that is self-regulating, we also seek self-restraint. That self-restraint is something that the whole House wants. The certainty for Members that the House is run in an orderly …
Lords
Proceedings
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
My Lords, this is a tortuous and, frankly, somewhat embarrassing Statement—stable door after stable door pushed shut long after the obvious national security risk had bolted through them. The Prime Minister is still answering questions on the Statement in the other place; it would surely have been b…
Lords
Debate
14 April 2026
Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Bill
My Lords, as someone relatively new to the House I am very struck by how hard Ministers work in this House, as we have just heard from the noble Lord, Lord True. Having spent 20 or more years working with Governments of different persuasions and seeing Ministers in the Lords, I always think that the…
Lords
Proceedings
14 April 2026
Middle East
My Lords, in thanking the Government for laying this Statement, I begin by paying tribute to our brave service men and women who are serving in this conflict right now. They are the very best of Britain, and they have this House’s unequivocal support.
I remember well 16 October 1964, the day the mu…
Lords
Proceedings
13 April 2026
Clerk of the Parliaments
My Lords, there have been on 65 Clerks of the Parliaments in the 700 years or more since the role was formed and, as the Leader said, only 20 since the 1824 Act—which governs the role now in statute and argued then for the salary to be the princely sum of £40. It was not set on whether it was inflat…
Lords
Debate
10 March 2026
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I will be brief. Finding the balance between, first, the Government’s 2024 manifesto, secondly, the maintenance of the separation of powers among the three legs of our constitutional stool—the Executive, Parliament and the judiciary—and, thirdly, the proper staffing and working of our Hous…
Lords
Proceedings
2 March 2026
Middle East
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for repeating this important Statement. As someone who has spent many years studying the history of that region, I have the profoundest respect for the history and culture of Iran, which over millennia has been one of the greatest pillars of world civilisation. S…
Lords
Proceedings
10 February 2026
Standards in Public Life
My Lords, the problem with this Statement is that it does not address the central question of why the Prime Minister chose a twice-disgraced man, a known associate of a convicted criminal and one of the most repellent paedophiles we have ever known, to be His Majesty’s ambassador to Washington—remov…
Lords
Proceedings
4 February 2026
China and Japan
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to ask questions on a Statement by our well-travelled Prime Minister. Actually, we on this side do not criticise the Prime Minister for travelling abroad: it is part of his job. What we do criticise is the devastating impact his policies are having on busi…
Lords
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Election of Lord Speaker
My Lords, I entirely endorse everything the Leader of the House has said on our behalf. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Forsyth—and he is my friend. However, I remember that, when I first became a Minister in your Lordships’ House, it fell to my noble friend to ask the first Question. I was very…
Lords
Proceedings
16 December 2025
Retirement and Participation Committee
I am not sure that there is much more to say, but I am grateful to the noble Lord for the way that the usual channels across the House have conducted these discussions. I do not suppose that we will get everybody agreeing with everything all the time, but if there is a willingness to make progress, …
Lords
Proceedings
26 November 2025
G20 and Ukraine
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness the Leader of the House for repeating this important Statement—although, for those who have not read it, it ends with claims that the Government are driving growth, creating jobs, cutting the cost of living and
“strengthening the economic security of the British…
Lords
Debate
22 October 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I will speak as Leader of the Opposition; I do not wish to interfere with this debate. I have no intention of moving the adjournment of the House, which has been suggested might happen. We will proceed to the end of the debate and my noble friend Lady Scott will respond to the Minister.
I…
Lords
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Middle East
My Lords, when the Lord Speaker told me last night of his decision to retire early, I was overwhelmed by the sense of his love for his wife of 56 years that led to the decision. There will be another time for tributes, but I would like the Lord Speaker to know how much he himself is loved in this Ho…
Lords
Proceedings
14 October 2025
3 contributions
Business of the House
My Lords, as a member of the usual channels, I regret that we have not reached an agreement. But I think it has to be recognised by the House that every Government ask for help when their legislative programme is under pressure. That is inevitable in a House where the pace of the business is unpredi…
Hear, hear!
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
2 contributions
Chinese Espionage: Parliament
My Lords, the UK Government remain steadfast in their commitment to reducing the threat from foreign espionage targeting UK domestic institutions and continue to drive cross-government work to respond to the threat through the Defending Democracy Taskforce. The National Cyber Security Centre and the…
I thank the noble Lord for his question. He is absolutely right that of course we would expect full prosecution of anybody who undertakes espionage against Members of your Lordships’ House or anyone else working in Parliament. I want to make it very clear that we are very disappointed by the CPS’s d…
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, I put my name to this amendment. I underline the thanks that have been expressed to all the various people mentioned, including the lawyers, who have played a very important part.
As has been said, the noble Baroness the Leader tried very hard over a long period to find an appropriate and…
My Lords, the Bill, which has occupied 51 hours of your Lordships’ time, is exceptionally short. It has occupied that much time because it has been used as an opportunity to discuss virtually every possible aspect of the future composition and powers of your Lordships’ House.
As those unfortunate e…
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
5 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
The Minister loves this word “shenanigans”; whenever I see a briefing in the newspapers, I know where it has come from. She cited one shenanigan; can she give another? The Opposition have made repeated offers, and we are negotiating in the usual channels to deliver the Government’s legislation. The …
My Lords, I am always very touched when people call for the Front Bench. I am very happy, if I am so popular, to go over to the other side, if that is what the other side would like.
This has been an important debate, although brief, on the next stage of reform. It is really a coda to the very inte…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
9 July 2025
12 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
My Lords, before speaking to Amendment 13, I should explain that I have tabled Amendment 13A on the supplementary list to put beyond doubt a point that may have been an unintended effect of the original drafting of Amendment 13. Amendment 13A ensures that the proposal in Amendment 13 would not apply…
My Lords, as explained, I have already spoken to this amendment. I beg to move.
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Black Rod
It is a pleasure, on behalf of these Benches, to follow the Lord Privy Seal, who spoke beautifully for us all as our Leader in her generous tribute to our outgoing Black Rod, Sarah Clarke. I rather liked the joke; I wish I had thought of it myself.
By a curious coincidence, I found myself sitting l…
I had probably better not go on. But we all know who made that choice, and that was Sarah Clarke. How grateful we are that she did, despite the fact that she is well and truly in her right mind.
Sarah brought with her a wealth of logistical and managerial expertise when she accepted our offer to be…
Lords
Debate
2 July 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
May I ask the Minister a clarifying question? I think this is important, irrespective of which party is in office. I think she has described the situation very fairly and clearly. Obviously, this prime ministerial power, which is not new, of direct appointment to the Cross Benches, raises the questi…
My Lords, this has been an interesting discussion. In some ways it ran over from the previous group, I rather thought. There were some very important points raised and I do not think the House in any way—I will come back to it—should underestimate the challenge, which is in no way a challenge to any…