Lords
Proceedings
11 September 2025
Qatar: Israeli Strike
Could the Minister confirm whether there were British nationals within the vicinity of the strikes? What advice is being provided to British nationals in that part of Doha and indeed in Qatar overall?
The Minister must be aware that this has been a deliberate attempt to both undermine and end any n…
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
I have listened to the Minister. He said that the Government are intending to move when parliamentary time allows. This is the time of Parliament, so why are the Government not moving now?
Lords
Proceedings
2 September 2025
Friendly Wifi Certification
The noble Lord raises another very important issue. Parliament already has extremely strong cyber defences beyond filtering and blocking technology. Parliament is clearly a high-profile target that is under cyberattack every minute of the day, and our specialised cyber defences protect against these…
Lords
Proceedings
1 September 2025
Middle East
My Lords, I too thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. Since this is my first occasion to speak in the Chamber since my predecessor, my noble friend Lord Newby, retired as leader of our group, I put on record my appreciation to him and express how much all of us on these Benches admired how…
Lords
Proceedings
18 July 2025
Strategic Defence Review 2025
My Lords, I too congratulate the authors of this thoughtful review, and the noble Lord, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, on his eloquent and powerful presentation of it today. The key arguments it makes are compelling, and the recommendations are, in the main, well judged. There are, of course, points …
Lords
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Sudan
My Lords, I declare my interest in my continuing active involvement with the Sumoud civilian network, which is seeking an end to the war and a future civilian Government of Sudan. I too commend the work of the diaspora community here in the UK, including groups such as Humanitarian Action for Sudan,…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
Syria: Druze Community
I welcomed the noble Lord’s concerns at the time; he was right to raise them. We were at the forefront of lifting sanctions at that point. I still think that was the right decision, because in order to get the stability and security that Syria needs and that we all want to see, it is important that …
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
India and Pakistan: Peace Representations
My Lords, I join in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Hussain, for securing this important debate. He is rightly concerned about the importance of restoring peace to the region.
With more than 3 million British nationals of Pakistani and Indian origin, of course the UK shares strong and long-standing t…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
Tackling Unsustainable Debt
I do not know the specific answer to the noble Lord’s question, I am afraid. I am very happy to write to him to fill that in. As I have said, the action we are taking at a multilateral level is proven to be the most effective route that we can take to tackle these issues.
Lords
Oral Questions
16 July 2025
Diplomatic Missions: Unpaid Charges
There are a whole range of measures that we can consider, and I certainly take on board the one that the noble Lord has mentioned. Others include encouraging the use of public transport, cycling or walking around our wonderful city. But he suggests that we raise these matters directly with our count…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
United Kingdom: Soft Power
I think my noble friend Lady Chapman has answered these points. There is part of a spending review and lots of decisions have not yet been made. We will get more detail in the next few weeks and certainly by November. However, I shall repeat what I said before on our soft power and our focus on econ…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
2 contributions
Falkland Islands: Fisheries Exports Tariffs
The noble Lord is right: we are trying to fix a problem that, yet again, we were left by the previous Government. The European Union is clear that the TCA cannot be reopened in terms of its geographical consequences. On additional agreements, we are working very hard to make sure that the EU reset h…
I will take it away, but I promise I will also come back.
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2025
Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response
My Lords, hundreds of both Iranian and Israeli citizens were very regrettably injured and killed as a result of the strikes. We were told by our American friends that the Iranian nuclear programme had been obliterated. We now know that it has not; it may be delayed by just a matter of months. We wer…
Lords
Proceedings
3 July 2025
British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty
My Lords, I have in my hand a BBC News report of Jeremy Corbyn welcoming the Government’s decision on the exercise of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. It reports that he was “very pleased” that the UK Government had backed down and said that the Foreign Secretary’s announcement was a “good step fo…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 July 2025
India: Minorities
I think that—how shall I put this?—the nature of our relationship with the Government of India changes in accordance with the nature of our position in relation to these conversations. It is a judgment: are these things best progressed in the way that we would all like if we take a hard line as part…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
2 contributions
UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago
In light of the position that the Conservatives have taken—no, that was a joke. In light of the Minister accepting the terms of my Motion and the fact that this House, and indeed Parliament, will return to these very serious issues, especially those regarding the rights of the Chagossians, I will no…
In light of the position that the Conservatives have taken—no, that was a joke. In light of the Minister accepting the terms of my Motion and the fact that this House, and indeed Parliament, will return to these very serious issues, especially those regarding the rights of the Chagossians, I will no…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
4 contributions
UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago
My Lords, the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper invites the House to take note of the recent report of the International Agreements Committee, which I have the honour of chairing. I too look forward to the maiden speech of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Prentis of Banbury, and to t…
I heard the noble Lord; earlier, we heard the noble Lords, Lord Ahmad and Lord Cameron, say entirely different things.
On the marine protected area, environmental matters are extremely important to the whole world. Can the Minister tell us in summing up how Mauritius will protect the reefs? We do n…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
30 June 2025
Deep Sea Mining in International Waters
I think I need to respond in a positive way. I can be absolutely clear what we are in favour of. The major priority for the ISA is to agree a regulatory regime for exploitation, and we have been engaged in these negotiations from the start. The ISA has agreed a road map for continued work on the reg…
Lords
Proceedings
26 June 2025
National Security Strategy
My Lords, I also thank the Leader for repeating the Statement. Most people in our country take for granted the liberties and freedoms we enjoy. In a way, that is a good thing, as they do not need to concern themselves with the need for vigilance against the threats we face. We enjoy our way of life …
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2025
Middle East
My Lords, every casualty in the Iran-Israel conflict is one that could have been avoided, but it is worth remembering that, in the same period, almost as many people have been shot in Gaza simply queuing for food, and the crisis in the region continues.
On Iran, the US clearly decided to escalate t…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 June 2025
Official Development Assistance: Vulnerable Children
The ODA budget faces a 40% cut because we have decided to spend more on the Ministry of Defence, and I think everybody here is aware of that. The best buy in education is actually not through programming or delivery of education; it is through policy change in-country. What we need, and what countri…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 June 2025
Israel and Iran
As the noble Lord knows, I agree with him. Despite the urgency of the situation in relation to Iran, we are not taking our eyes off the situation in Gaza. We are focused on ensuring that we can get the humanitarian aid in, as we have promised. We are working very hard with all our allies and making …
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2025
Gibraltar
My Lords, I should declare that I have visited Gibraltar previously, both before and immediately after the Brexit referendum. I am conscious that there has been a regrettable legacy of Brexit—which I note, as the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, did not, the people of Gibraltar rejected in almost equal nu…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 June 2025
International Vaccine Programmes: Funding
I think the noble Lord is somewhat overinterpreting what has been said. We have been very clear that we are going to prioritise humanitarian, health and climate initiatives. Because of his work in this field, he will understand that, when you are talking about health, principally, the beneficiaries …
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2025
Conflict in the Middle East
I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement made today. I start by referring to the previous Statement on the designations. I have previously described in the House a visit that I made to a destroyed Palestinian village, Zanuta. The community education room in that village, which was co-funded …