Lords
Oral Questions
16 September 2025
Undocumented Migrants
That was another good effort from the noble Lord to try to get me to say “yes” to an answer to which he knows I am going to say “no”. Amendments can be made to the ECHR, and the Government intend to make those amendments to ensure that we will make changes, particularly in relation to Article 8, and…
Lords
Debate
8 September 2025
7 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, we on these Benches agree that detained persons should, of course, have access to good legal representation when they are detained. This amendment pertains to legal aid for those detained persons. As noble Lords are aware, legal aid is already provided for those who bring asylum cases or o…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Jackson of Peterborough for his amendment, which seeks to collect and publish data about overseas students who have committed criminal offences leading to the revocation of their student visas.
When immigrants commit crimes, we need to understand whether there…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
7 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will also speak to Amendments 107, 108 and 111 standing in my name. They are all linked to the amendments in the previous group and once again are aimed at understanding exactly why the Government are repealing each of these clauses.
First and foremost, Amendment 106 rightly acknowledge…
My Lords, I am not sure that the noble Lord has explained fully why the Government are removing these sections of the Illegal Migration Act and why they oppose these amendments. The first amendment sought to protect unaccompanied children from automatic removal, while allowing for carefully defined …
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I rise to oppose the Question that Clauses 38 and 39 stand part of the Bill. It is a curious feature of this Bill that, on the one hand, it purports to take tougher action on illegal migration, yet at the same time it repeals the very Act of Parliament which would tackle that illegal migra…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response. At this point, I thank my noble friend Lord Murray of Blidworth. I pay tribute to him for the sterling work he did as a Home Office Minister in steering the Illegal Migration Act through this House, and I thank him for his continued, erudite defence o…
Lords
Proceedings
2 September 2025
2 contributions
Borders and Asylum
My Lords, the wave of protests over the summer in opposition to the continuing use of hotels to house asylum seekers has evidently forced the Government’s hand. They have now been in office for over a year and, unfortunately, the situation at the border has deteriorated. We have seen some 29,300 peo…
That is one month.
Lords
Oral Questions
2 September 2025
Public Order Legislation
The noble Lord has raised an extremely important point. I do not want to answer it directly at the Dispatch Box now; I will need to reflect on the issues he has raised. I hope he will understand that. I will get back to him in writing so that there is clarity on that ruling.
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity
My Lords, the situation in Epping is already being woefully managed. The police have admitted escorting pro-migrant demonstrators to an asylum hotel, having previously denied having done so, and we know that there have been concerning incidents of violent behaviour. Further and larger protests are e…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 July 2025
Palestine Action Protests: Arrests
This Government—and I personally—have no time for antisemitism. We will take action against it; we will look at the review and the reports that have been made and respond to the recommendations in due course. I hope the noble Lord will be aware that antisemitism is a curse on our society, one that w…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Illegal Migration: Pull Factors
I cannot give the noble Lord chapter and verse on all that detail in the half a minute that I have to answer his question, but I can say that 35,000 failed asylum seekers who came on small boats were removed last year, which is 13% more than in the 12 months previous, when his Government were in cha…
Lords
Proceedings
17 July 2025
UK-France Migration: Co-operation
My Lords, illegal migration is one of the most challenging issues we face today. More than 21,000 people have used small boat crossings to illegally breach our borders this year so far. That number is up 56% from the same period last year. Some 78% of people polled by YouGov think that the Governmen…
Lords
Debate
10 July 2025
7 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I knew it would be only a matter of time before the debate turned to the European Union. However, I offer some support on this amendment, which seeks to introduce an annual reporting requirement on co-operation between UK law enforcement agencies and Europol. I do so not out of any dogmati…
Those figures are extremely impressive—thank goodness for that—but can the Minister explain why over 21,000 people are arriving in the UK on boats?
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Lords
Debate
8 July 2025
7 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, Amendment 63 seeks to future-proof the offence in Clause 18 of endangering another during a sea crossing. As currently drafted, the clause risks failing in its central purpose: to deter and prosecute those whose actions endanger lives at sea, regardless of where they are travelling from. P…
My Lords, I am grateful to those who have spoken. Clause 18 seeks to address a very real threat to life, but none the less confines itself to an arbitrary, narrow set of departure points, as if dangerous crossings were the exclusive preserve of the channel route. This is plainly not the case, and it…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
8 July 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, the amendments in this group, tabled by my noble friend Lady May, raise some interesting questions that I hope the Government will be able to address.
Modern slavery is of course an extremely serious issue. As the recent report from the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Traffi…
Lords
Committee Stage
7 July 2025
Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) (Threshold Amount) (Amendment) Order 2025
I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Davies, for having a shared approach to money laundering. He is right to point to the fact that there has been a consultation on this matter. He is also right to point out that, in essence, there is a shared understanding between all parties that the money laund…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
3 July 2025
Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025
I thank the Minister for his response, and every noble Lord who has spoken in the debate, especially those who have been kind about me. I will just say that I do not normally take interventions because, in my 12 years’ experience of your Lordships’ House, most interventions can be a speech after min…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
Music Festivals: Hate Speech
I hope that I can again reassure the noble Lord. Legislation is in place, and his Government previously and this Government now want to see that legislation implemented when the police judge that criminal thresholds have been crossed. It is not for Ministers to determine whether a criminal threshold…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 July 2025
Police: Facial Recognition Technology
I am grateful to the noble Lord for his support for a range of surveillance methods. CCTV, for example, is one of the greatest crime prevention tools brought in in the last 30 years. It shows what happened at an event, not what might have been perceived to have happened, so it is very valuable. With…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
Migrants: Hotel Accommodation
The Government set a clear direction of travel on reducing hotels, tackling the asylum backlog, trying to prevent people coming to this country unfairly in the first place and, when they do claim asylum, processing those claims much quicker. I point the noble Lord to one figure, which I hope is help…
Lords
Debate
26 June 2025
6 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to open this first day of Committee. I will speak also to my Amendments 2, 26 and 27 in this first group. At Second Reading, a number of noble Lords raised the issue that the commander will essentially be a civil servant with co-ordination functions: a commander with nothi…
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lords who contributed to this debate.
We have heard the words from the Government Benches about co-ordination, structure and strategic intent, but let us not lose sight of what this role is supposed to be: a commander. That word carries meaning. It is not s…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2025
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
My Lords, as my noble friend Lady Stedman-Scott said last week in response to the Government’s previous U-turn on winter fuel payments, we are pleased that the Government have finally listened to the wishes of the British public and agreed to hold a full national inquiry into grooming gangs.
The ab…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 June 2025
Child Sexual Abuse and Rape Gangs Inquiry
One of the key recommendations from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, was that we review convictions of victims and look at how victims have experienced the system. We have accepted that recommendation in full, and we will be bringing forward measures in the Crime and Policing Bill very shortly, which…
Lords
Debate
13 June 2025
6 contributions
Asylum Support (Prescribed Period) Bill [HL]
My Lords, I add just a couple of sentences to what the Chief Whip has just said. Some of us have a five-hour journey ahead of us this evening, into more rural parts of the United Kingdom. Perhaps he would like to bear that in mind.
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Jamieson for this group. These clause stand part notices and the amendment seek fundamentally to oppose the purpose of this Bill. The Bill seeks to provide an extension to the period in which those who have failed to secure an asylum claim can continue to recei…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 June 2025
2 contributions
European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, for tabling this debate and for his comprehensive overview of the service, the issues and the need for this service.
Before today’s Question for Short Debate and my preparation for it, I was not aware of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay …
The department is in constant discussion with the CAA on this issue. I do not have any evidence that the CAA believes that reimplementing EGNOS is a matter of the greatest concern, but as the noble Lord asked the question, I will go away, find out what the current position with the CAA is and write …