Lords
Debate
5 November 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 37. I am grateful to noble Lords who have added their names and to the Refugee Council. I also declare, and am grateful for, help received from RAMP as an associate.
The proposed new clause would ensure that newly recognised refugees have at least 56 days to mov…
My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords who have spoken.
The formal position of the Opposition was on the grounds of disincentivising. How many of those who are willing to risk their lives coming over the channel even know about such a thing as a move-on period, and how many are aware how many days …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 November 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I speak to Amendment 57, in my name and those of other noble Lords, to whom I am grateful for their support. I am also grateful to the Refugee Migrant Children’s Consortium for all its help and to my noble friend Lady Longfield, who cannot be in her place but who has written to my noble fr…
I asked a specific question about how the Government propose to respond to the chief inspector’s recommendation about involving stakeholders. At the meeting that the Minister has forgotten I was at, I asked about a task and finish group that would involve particularly NGOs, because they bring such u…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Child Poverty Strategy: Migrant Families
The Government are committed to tackling child poverty, and the Child Poverty Taskforce will publish its 10-year strategy to drive sustainable change later this year. The Home Office has agreed that children whose families have no recourse to public funds will be included in the scope of the Governm…
I am grateful to my noble friend. I hope that I gave her a very strong answer in my first Answer, which I hope met the objectives that she has set. Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. Poverty scars the lives and life chances of al…
Lords
Debate
21 October 2025
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Verdirame, for tabling this amendment, which, as he said, follows up on the one I tabled in Committee, to which he spoke so eloquently. I too thank my noble friend the Minister and her officials for the very useful meeting we had recently and the Pu…
Lords
Debate
21 October 2025
Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill
My Lords, I apologise that I was unable to speak at Second Reading, but I have read the debate and listened to the speeches in support of the amendment—of course. As a member of the noble order of terriers who have battled on behalf of children’s citizenship over the years, I have a moral duty to ex…
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will introduce Amendment 186 on behalf of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford, who very much regrets that she cannot be in her place as she feels strongly about this issue.
The amendment concerns a change in official guidance for immigration staff assessing good characte…
That is an important point. I was going to say we have been asking this question for many months and are still waiting for an answer to it.
I thank the noble Lord, Lord German, for his very strong support for the amendment and particularly for his really helpful research in the Council of Europe. I…
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 203K in my name, which is supported by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford, who is sorry she cannot be in her place. I thank the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium for its assistance. The amendment would introduce a statutory requirement for…
Lords
Debate
22 July 2025
Universal Credit Bill
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson, on her excellent speech and welcome her to the House. I also look forward to my noble friend Lady Bryan of Partick’s valedictory speech. I thank her for her compassion and mentoring. When I first arrived in this House, she said, “Y…
Lords
Debate
16 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Penn, for building on the amendments that she and I tabled in Committee. I will speak to Amendment 100, to which I have added my name, but will not repeat the case I made in Committee. No doubt my noble friend the Minister will say that the amendme…
Lords
Debate
15 July 2025
Renters’ Rights Bill
I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, for taking over this amendment, to which I was pleased to add my name. I assure her that I am as committed as ever to opposing this policy. Given the widespread support for the repeal of this discriminatory legislation, including among landlords’ …
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 104, to which I have added my name. I do not intend to repeat the case I made in Committee for paid carer’s leave, and which was put very fully by the noble Lord, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, but I am still unclear as to why the Government now, in effect, question …
Before my noble friend sits down, I very much welcome what he said about the review now being more transparent. Did he say that clear terms of reference would be set out, and did he give a commitment to publish the outcome of that review and allow us to debate it in Parliament?
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
10 July 2025
6 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I welcome Clause 37 very warmly. For some of us it is the best bit of the Bill. I am really pleased, for once, to be able to unequivocally support my Front Bench and my noble friend the Minister.
My noble friend the Minister did not have the pleasure of sitting through the debates about t…
My Lords—
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
10 July 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly in support. I, too, am supported by RAMP, and that is in the register—that is done for Committee now. I warmly welcome Clause 34 as well, but the amendment being proposed is a very modest one, which would not be difficult for the Government to accept. The case has alre…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Universal Credit: Two-child Limit
My Lords, the Government do not routinely publish costings of policy alternatives. However, estimates have been produced by independent think tanks, including the IFS, the Resolution Foundation and IPPR. Their costings range from £2.5 billion to £3.5 billion a year in steady state. This Government a…
My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the Children’s Commissioner. She will be aware that the Government commissioned the Children’s Commissioner to look at the experience of children in poverty. I am sure that, like me, she has read their comments, and they make for uncomfortable reading. But we cann…
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2025
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
My Lords, I warmly welcome this daughter of Sure Start. One of Sure Start’s great strengths was the way in which it involved parents so as to boost their agency, self-confidence and sense of ownership of the projects. Today’s report refers to coproduction by local authorities together with their com…
Lords
Debate
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Renters’ Rights Bill
My Lords, I am pleased to support my noble friend Lady Kennedy of Cradley, and I am grateful to her for taking over the amendment. She is much better placed than I am to speak to it, and has done so very persuasively. The noble Lord, Lord Fuller, called it a blunt instrument and was hyperbolic in hi…
This amendment does not preclude the use of guarantors; it just limits their use. I will leave it at that. As I said in Committee, if there is a better way of doing it, then fine—perhaps the Government could bring forward an amendment that ruled out any unintended consequences. I am not convinced th…
Lords
Proceedings
2 July 2025
Welfare Reform
My Lords, I welcome the fact that common sense finally prevailed, so that the review of PIP will be undertaken before any decisions about eligibility. I hope that that will help to allay the anxieties expressed so powerfully by the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, and that we have all received in our …
Lords
Debate
1 July 2025
Renters’ Rights Bill
My Lords, in my Second Reading speech, I drew attention to the role played by high housing costs in driving poverty. I was thus pleased to add my name to Amendment 114, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, although I am supportive also of the other amendments in this group and hope that what …
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
Migrants: Hotel Accommodation
I am grateful to my noble friend. Safeguarding is extremely important, and it is the Government’s ambition to remove all asylum seekers from hotels as soon as is practical. We have reduced the number of hotels: in fact, we have fewer hotels now, in the week of the general election anniversary, than …
Lords
Committee Stage
25 June 2025
4 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, Amendment 123 is supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, who is in the Chamber, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leicester, who regrets that he cannot be in his place. He was going to be replaced by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester but …
I am afraid it was remiss of me not to congratulate the Chair on the recent addition to his family and to send best wishes to his daughter—fingers crossed, and I hope it all goes well.
I thank all noble Lords who spoke, including the noble Lord, Lord Verdirame—he sounded so learned that I want to c…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
23 June 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I am moving Amendment 166 with the support of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford, to whom I am grateful—she regrets that she cannot be in her place—as I am to the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium, the RMCC, for its help.
The amendment would introduce an entitleme…
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, for her support. She put her finger on the key point, which is that it is the spirit and not the details of the amendment that I hoped that the Government would consider. She made some important points, in particular that …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
19 June 2025
9 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 152. I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester, who regrets that he cannot be here—perhaps an absent friend, taking what was said earlier—and the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, for supporting that amendment.
Amendment 152 would remove the …
I thank my noble friend the Minister for her response and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, for making the case and reminding us that we are talking about children first. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, for what was actually a very sympathetic response to what I said.
I absolutely …
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 June 2025
5 contributions
Asylum Support (Prescribed Period) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I am sorry it proved impossible to deal with all the amendments in a single group because that would have saved us time. I have to say that I do not recognise my Bill in the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson. We are not talking about illegal migration; we are talking about people wh…
My Lords, there is a fundamental misunderstanding here. This Bill is about people who have succeeded in their claim for refugee status, so can the noble Lord’s remarks please be put on a premise that is true to the facts?
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2025
Free School Meals
My Lords, I warmly welcome the extension of free school meals. It is important for children and for parents in poverty. I very much welcome what my noble friend has said about it being a down payment on the child poverty strategy, but I echo my Commons colleagues who argued that it cannot be a subst…
Lords
Debate
9 June 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I am very pleased to add my name to Amendment 67, so ably introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff.
For me, this is very much a question of children’s rights. As the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said, Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it cle…