Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Police Leadership Commission Report
My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing this Statement to the House today, and I am grateful for the opportunity to ask questions on it. Failures of police leadership are all too evident. Police leadership failed when forces overlooked, ignored and actively downplayed the scale of the grooming g…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Safe Refugee Routes for Students
My Lords, the Government have recently announced that they will allow communities to sponsor refugees on new asylum routes. Given that we had 93,525 people claiming asylum in the United Kingdom in the year ending March 2026, can the Minister tell the House how the Government can be contemplating inc…
Lords
Proceedings
7 July 2026
Drugging and Sexual Assault of Women
My Lords, it is welcome that the National Crime Agency has investigated these appalling events, and I hope the perpetrators face the full force of the law. However, does the Minister accept that the NCA’s job of investigating and preventing organised sexual crime is going to be made significantly ha…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Immigration and Asylum: Appeals
I am grateful to the Minister for his Answer. What steps will the Government take, through the recruitment and vetting process, to ensure that adjudicators are genuinely independent and impartial, and to guard against the new authority becoming dominated by individuals who have publicly campaigned i…
Lords
Debate
23 June 2026
National Security (State Threats) Bill
My Lords, I begin by welcoming at long last the Government’s decision to bring this legislation forward. I say “at long last” advisedly and not as mere partisan point-scoring. This House will recall that the Opposition pressed the Government on no fewer than three separate occasions during the passa…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office
My Lords, I hear what the Minister says. However, these convictions do not come in isolation; they follow a series of recent incidents involving alleged Chinese state-linked activity in the UK, including espionage prosecutions and reports of surveillance directed at dissidents and members of the Hon…
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
State of Extremism Report
My Lords, the Protecting What Matters document says that
“we must be clear that we are a society built on shared values”.
Do the Government accept that Britain is about far more than just shared values? Social cohesion relies upon a shared sense of belonging and a common culture. This requires tho…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 June 2026
Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 113. It has been on a bit of a circuitous tour of groupings, but I am pleased to say that it is back in group 1. I declare my membership of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. I am vice-president, and I apologise for not mentioning that at Second Reading.
Lords
Committee Stage
15 June 2026
Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) (Amendment) Order 2026
My Lords, the Minister will be delighted to hear that His Majesty’s Official Opposition do not oppose this order, and I am grateful to the Minister for bringing it before the Committee.
Families travelling through our major ports during the school holidays will know only too well the frustrations o…
Lords
Proceedings
11 June 2026
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: Proscription
My Lords, now that the Government have published the National Security (State Threats) Bill, I can confirm to the Minister that His Majesty’s Opposition will work with the Government to ensure that the Bill can progress swiftly. I do have a few concerns, however, with the drafting of the Bill. One i…
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Refugee Move-on Period Pilot Evaluation Report
The Government talk up, of course, the number of illegal migrants and failed asylum seekers they have returned, but the Minister knows that the number of enforced returns—those people the Home Office forcibly deports—was only 9,700, a small number in the grand scheme and scale of the problem. Given …
Lords
Proceedings
10 June 2026
Concealed Surveillance Equipment in Government Offices and Vehicles
My Lords, I am sure the whole House will agree that this is a highly disturbing and troubling discovery, which demonstrates the severity of the espionage threat that we face today. To pick up on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, given that the camera was found in the offices where Minist…
Lords
Committee Stage
10 June 2026
Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (Amendment) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for introducing these regulations. I am pleased to say from the outset that these Benches are broadly supportive of what the Government are seeking to achieve, and I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed.
The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act …
Lords
Proceedings
3 June 2026
Murder of Henry Nowak
My Lords, this is an appalling and tragic case. The brutal murder of Henry Nowak, the lies told by Vickrum Digwa and the behaviour of the police officers involved have made it all the more sickening. This was a young man, a university student, who was stabbed before being handcuffed by police as he …
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
Unite the Kingdom March
My Lords, there were two protests last weekend. One of those attracted widespread condemnation from the Prime Minister, the Mayor of London, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and most in the Parliamentary Labour Party; the other attracted little or no condemnation. That other protest, …
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, it is a real pleasure to close this debate on behalf of the Opposition, and as ever I express my gratitude to His Majesty the King for delivering the gracious Speech.
I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Case, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich on their…
Lords
Oral Questions
28 April 2026
Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025
Again, we had full and good exchanges on this when the Bill came before this House and the House of Commons. I explained then, as I will explain now, that the impact assessment assesses that small organisations will face around a £330 charge over a 10-year period to meet the obligations of Martyn’s …
Lords
Debate
27 April 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I am not quite sure whether the noble Lord intends to press his Motion or not.
That is very gracious. I will keep an eye out for it.
I am pleased that we have made some progress. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for his pragmatic approach. I know that he would have liked the Government to go further on the issue of fixed penalty notices. I know he will be …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
Student Visas
As the noble Lord will know, we have already put a brake on Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan for the very reason that there were high levels of asylum claims from them—470% of their 2021 levels. That is a temporary halt. We keep all options under review and it is important that the student r…
Lords
Debate
22 April 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I come at this from a somewhat naive point of view perhaps, but I cannot understand, having heard the Minister, why on earth the Government have not done it already.
Leave out from “439” to end and insert “, do disagree with the Commons in their Amendments 439C and 439D in lieu, and do propose Amendments 439E and 439F in lieu—
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Statutory Instrument
21 April 2026
Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990 (Amendment) Order 2026
I am grateful for the comments that have been made and I understand the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s concerns. I hope that the noble Baroness will forgive me if I say that the Government came into office in July 2024 and, as soon as we identified the challenges posed in terms of orders…
Lords
Debate
16 April 2026
12 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, during the passage of this Bill, I have greatly admired the Minister’s geniality and stamina, but, sadly, this is not always matched by his delivery. I am afraid that the Government’s current approach really does not cut the mustard, and a number of mixed metaphors occur in the circumstanc…
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on the work that she has done on the issues that have been raised in the House about pornography and online harm. I add my thanks to my noble friend and her honourable friend the Minister in the other place for the very competent amendment they h…
+10 more contributions in this session