Lords
Proceedings
21 April 2026
House of Lords: Legislative Procedures
My Lords, I think the whole House would agree that very late nights should be the exception. The noble Lord suggests we talk less—I have to say one of the sadnesses of this role of mine is that I talk less in this House than I did before I did this role. But it is about making effective use of the t…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
17 March 2026
National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for his response. I was not expecting Confucius, but of course I defer to that ancient wisdom.
I listened very carefully to what was said, in particular by the noble Baroness, Lady Carberry of Muswell Hill. I think she said—she will correct me if I am wr…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
In the Select Committee, Chris Whitty, the head of the NHS, said that no drug will be given to any patient that was not approved by NICE. That is what he said: no drug will be given to anybody that was not approved by NICE.
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Atrocity Crimes
My Lords, I join other noble Lords in congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, on securing this timely debate. In our increasingly unstable world, the incidence of atrocities has grown in recent years, as mentioned by all noble Lords. The noble Lord has long been an effective champion…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 January 2026
Buses: Safety and Security
I already referred to the UK bus manufacturing expert panel, which has been set up by this Government precisely to support the UK bus manufacturing industry. I also said that we are actively encouraging those mayoral combined authorities which will procure bus fleets to embed best-practice social-va…
Lords
Debate
7 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I speak to Amendment 399 in the names of my noble friend Lady Pidgeon, who cannot attend today, and my noble friend Lady Doocey. This amendment would enable CCTV systems on the railways to be quickly available to the police and continuously for 30 days, alongside defining the technical sta…
My Lords, we support the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower. He has hit the nail on the head with this amendment about the intent to supply electronic devices for car theft, which has become an epidemic in this country. Data assessed by colleagues in the other House revealed that, in 2024, 75% of vehi…
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Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 316 from the noble Lord, Lord Black of Brentwood. Unfortunately, the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, has just taken my entire speech away from me, so I will not quote Coke’s. I thank him for what he has said. He is a lawyer and he has tried to help with this.
On the point of…
Lords
Debate
21 November 2025
7 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I have moved my seat. I wish to speak briefly as a member of the Select Committee who has not spoken.
I moved from my position at the front, because there was a presumption that I was the Front-Bench spokesman trying to force something. I apologise; I was not. This House has a free vote, and nobody is whipped. I happened to be sitting on the Front Bench, and I have moved back; I understand the alarm…
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Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have great sympathy with some of the sentiment of the amendments. However, as usual, they put the price—the fines—up but miss the elephant in the room. Who is going to do the work to collect the fines, to see the dog walker that the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, is looking for, and to be …
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I also express my gratitude to noble Lords on all sides of the House for their excellent contributions throughout our deliberations on this Bill. Their expertise, knowledge and careful scrutiny have been invaluable. I also thank the Ministers for the briefings and meetings, and indeed for …
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
Follow that. I failed my Bar exam at 11 and I never retook it, so I am at a disadvantage to the House in trying to sum up the debate on this amendment. My noble friend Lord Marks made the case that this is not just an open-and-shut, bonkers piece of legislation; there is more to it.
Last week, I we…
I heard what the noble Baroness said, and I accept her premise. By the same rule of that premise, those people suffer or are treated badly until they become accepted in society and can then raise their heads above the parapet—if that is the logic of the argument the noble Baroness is trying to make …
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Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I rise with some trepidation to follow that 70 minutes of riveting debate. Members may argue that that is the point of this House, and that is what we do. Well, we could have just put the tape recording from Committee on and then gone to the Tea Room for a tea and played it for the same am…
The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, will say “Hear, hear” no more because we cannot support Amendment 149A, which is a new amendment that proposes removing Clause 72. I will tell the House why we cannot support it. On Monday I supported the noble Lords, Lord Hunt and Lord Sharpe, when we were very critical o…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I have to say that this is probably the most difficult summing up from our group of all the amendments throughout Committee and Report, because I can see the merits of both sides of this argument.
On the one hand, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, is quite right. We are naturally suspicious of a…
My Lords, in Committee we tabled several amendments resisting this reduction from 10%, and the reason for doing that was that we think that is the existing and fair threshold. To go to 2% is not being done for the reason that the noble Lord, Lord Fuller, says, which is about competing unions and get…
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, we are dancing on the head of a pin with these amendments. The noble Lord, Lord Hendy, is right that these are welcome amendments that begin to address something I never knew anything about, which is that support staff have never had a baseline figure. That should be addressed.
I spoke to…
Lords
Debate
16 July 2025
6 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will be brief—not quite as brief as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, but I shall do my best, and I promise to keep away from the police and definitely the clergy. I had lunch with the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester, so I think I am safe for t…
My Lords, the amendments in this group relate to the Bill’s provisions on fire and rehire. I think there is a consensus across the House that the most outrageous cases of fire and rehire should be outlawed. The particular case and example is P&O Ferries, which was not so much fire and rehire, bu…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 July 2025
2 contributions
Football Governance Bill [HL]
My Lords, I refer the House to my register of interests, in particular my position as vice-chair of West Ham United, who play in the Premier League.
One of the privileges of speaking in this House is that we can talk not only to the present moment but for the historical record. When the story of th…
I am glad the noble Lord added that because otherwise, I would have kicked his name off the register, if I had been him.
The key amendments before us this evening are undoubtedly improvements, and I thank all the noble Lords who worked so hard, not least the noble Lords, Lord Birt and Pannick, to b…
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
7 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to open the debate on this group. I intend to be brief, as is appropriate on Report—I have said it, Minister, I cannot do any more. I begin by saying that there is clear cross-party agreement that exploitative zero-hours contracts must come to an end. Indeed, we o…
I thank noble Lords who took part in this debate. The number of amendments in this group shows the depth of feeling on zero-hours contracts. I think it was the same story from the noble Baroness, Lady Carberry of Muswell Hill—for whom I have the highest regard—and the Minister. It was not a defence;…
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Lords
Debate
18 June 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, these amendments collectively highlight the critical importance of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises as they adapt to the changes introduced by the Bill. We have raised this issue repeatedly throughout our deliberations. Night after night, this comes up in other parts of the le…
Lords
Debate
18 June 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, before I begin my comments about the various amendments, I have news from afar. Councillor Fox—sorry, not councillor; that is going back a bit. My noble friend Lord Fox wants to pass on his thanks to Members of the House from all sides who have sent best wishes for a speedy recovery. I sig…
My Lords, for the sake of clarity, we on these Benches fully support the Government on expanding employment legal aid beyond discrimination cases to improve fairness and efficiency and also on the importance of maintaining the power of employment tribunals to ensure summary judgment, speed up procee…
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Lords
Debate
10 June 2025
4 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, the amendments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, which have been tabled in good faith and with good intent, aim to clarify employees’ rights for reasonable time off and to maintain a balance of obligation between employers and employees. However, this tempting repeated emphasis …
My Lords, these amendments, proposed by the noble Lords, Lord Hendy and Lord Woodley, are I think as people have outlined. I have been on the wrong end of that legislation on a number of events—official strikes, unofficial strikes and secondary picketing. As a shop steward you are responsible for ta…
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Lords
Debate
10 June 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendments 215 and 332, both in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe. Amendment 215 proposes a new clause to grant trade union members a statutory “right to switch off”; that is, to disengage from contact initiated by trade union representatives.
It raises the w…
My Lords, I rise to speak to the amendments standing in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Jones. These proposals, while numerous and largely technical in nature, form an important part of the broader framework for trade union recognition and access. Although they are technical in nature, if you r…
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Lords
Debate
5 June 2025
4 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I ask the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, to address the amendment. These sound like Second Reading speeches being redelivered and redelivered. When is the noble Lord going to address the actual amendment? This is just a tour de force around the 1970s and 1980s, with anecdotes from the Back Ben…
My Lords, this group of amendments concerns the provision of employment rights. The essence of the group is about requiring employers to provide workers with a written statement of their trade union rights. Even after seven hours, I enjoyed listening to the noble Lord, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 June 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendment 129, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, ably articulated by the noble Viscount, Lord Colville of Culross. I also have some sympathy with the view of the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, on the matter.
I rise with some trepidation to comment on the proposal of an impact assessment for farming businesses, as I am not a farmer and have never lived on a farm. But I say to the noble Lord, Lord Deben, that there are lots of people who support the farmers and the culture, as well as the steadfastness of…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
21 May 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, there are two things that I can safely say. One is that I am unanimous in my comments tonight, and the other is that you cannot accuse the Liberal Democrats of extending the debate past a reasonable hour; we have done just over an hour on this debate. The debate has been quite sensible and…
I will reply to that. Yes, it is a technical question, and perhaps that wording sits there, but any person with an ounce of common sense who sees the Bill can see what the Government are trying to do. I do not think that the Bill, with over 300 amendments to it, is geared to do what the noble Barone…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
8 May 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
As everybody does.
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 29 and support my noble friend Lord Fox’s Amendment 27. My amendment probes the Government’s intended meaning for the phrase “reasonably believed”, which relates to short-notice cancellation of shifts. This phrase may seem innocuous at first glance, but it carr…
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