Lords
Proceedings
15 July 2026
Sudan: Operational Restrictions on Humanitarian Actors
My Lords, there are children in danger and children dying. Save the Children UK has got into doing gimmicks. What does the Minister say to it? Why is it not saving children, as it says in its title?
Lords
Committee Stage
9 July 2026
Contemporary Cultural Boycotts
My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, for introducing the debate, which is of course timely. I thank Freedom of the Arts for this report, but I thank in particular the artists, the performers and the writers who found the courage to describe what has been happening to them. Speaki…
Lords
Proceedings
11 June 2026
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: Proscription
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Alton. He and I are the only two people here who are proscribed by the IRGC. I too put on record my thanks to the Minister. We have pushed hard and will continue to push hard. This needs to be done. As I said yesterday in this Chamber, it is …
Lords
Debate
16 April 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I urge noble Lords to support Amendment 334 and declare my interest as the director of the Free Speech Union. The Minister will tell noble Lords that the amendment is unnecessary because the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council have recommended the abolition of the n…
Lords
Proceedings
14 April 2026
Middle East
My Lords, I find it rather surprising that we have spent 40 minutes and nobody has spoken about the fact that, as we speak here, the Lebanese and the Israeli ambassadors to the United States are sitting together for the first time in 43 years. I hope the Lord Privy Seal will join me in thanking the …
Lords
Oral Questions
26 March 2026
2 contributions
Golders Green Ambulance Attack
My Lords, the police are in the early stages of their investigation. They have arrested two British nationals, who are now on bail, and the police are looking at possible motivation. I cannot speculate further at this time. The Government have supported the Jewish community with record levels of sec…
The noble Lord will know that I think the attacks he has listed are vile crimes. Some are still under investigation, but they are vile crimes and there is absolutely no place in this United Kingdom for antisemitism. There is a range of other communities which regularly face attack, but I share his c…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
UK Homeland Defence
The whole House will totally agree with what the noble Lord said about the abhorrent antisemitic attacks in Golders Green, which were absolutely disgraceful and should play no part in our society at all.
On the IRGC, the Government continue to keep it under review. The noble Lord will know that the…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will raise 50% of a registered interest: I am 100% deaf in my left ear. The maths works, right? My right ear is quite good, thank God, but it is useful in many aspects of my life when I pretend that I did not hear at all.
I support all the amendments in this group. I was not going to sp…
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, at its heart, this amendment is about confidence: confidence that when antisemitism occurs, it is recognised; confidence that when it crosses the criminal threshold, it will be prosecuted; and confidence that Jewish communities in this country are properly protected.
Earlier today I spoke…
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am pleased to support the amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, to which I have added my name. As I understand it, the purpose of the amendment is pretty straightforward: it seeks to remove the current requirement in Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 that, for a statement glo…
My Lords, I rise again to support the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, as I did the other day. It says on her Wikipedia page that she is
“an advocate for children’s rights in the digital world”.
She is right, and I hope that all Members across the House who have actually heard the debate will support …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
Antisemitism on University Campuses
I agree with the noble Lord that people’s political views about the Middle East are often used in a very abusive way that I personally find very offensive, but this does not actually stop individuals saying that they do not agree with Zionism, or with the State of Israel, et cetera. It is not illega…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Iranian State-sponsored Cyber Attacks: Mitigation and Preparation
My Lords, the Government have taken significant action so far. We have sanctioned the IRGC in its entirety, as well as 550 Iranian individuals and entities. We have also placed the whole of the Iranian state, including Iran’s intelligence services, on the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence r…
Lords
Debate
10 March 2026
2 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 7, in my name. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Russell, and my noble friend Lord Farmer for supporting it.
The Government’s own intention with this Bill is to “strengthen support for victims” and deliver a justice system that puts the “needs of victims first”. These…
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 14 and there is not much to add, other than to pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, for all the work she has done over many years in this area and to support the noble Lord, Lord Russell.
To make it very clear, this amendment is not trying to r…
Lords
Debate
9 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support Amendments 371A, 419 and 441B, to which I have added my name. It is clear that attacking a police officer with a sledgehammer or breaking into an RAF base and damaging two planes, causing £7 million-worth of damage, is not a peaceful protest. Amendment 371A rightly targets that g…
Lords
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
2 contributions
Iran and the Middle East
My Lords—
I shall speak to my colleagues at the Home Office about the march. Obviously, how that is policed and what is done about it is rightly a matter for the relevant authorities. On the IRGC, I remind the House that we commissioned a legal report on this, and the recommendation was that the UK Government…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, first, I want tribute to my noble friend Lady Sugg, who has brilliantly led this campaign. I also pay tribute to Payzee Mahmod, who I was fortunate to hear give evidence in the House on Monday on the whole issue of honour-based abuse. I would never dream of taking issue with my friend, the…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
Nationalised Passenger Rail Services
I think the noble Lord will find that that goes via Thameslink, which will be taken into public ownership in four months. It is one of the operators whose management tries modestly hard, but it has a problem with a number of drivers. In due course, the Government will take steps to fix it.
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I support the amendments in this group, especially the one from my noble friend Lord Evans. I was not going to speak but I was moved by what the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, said about her father.
I am not a Luddite. My mother passed away in July 2023 from brain cancer, and this debate has…
My Lords, I apologise to the Committee for intervening, but I have waited—we are now in our eighth week, I think. I have three amendments coming up in the next group but one. I have to be in synagogue at 4.30 pm so I will not be able to speak to them, sadly; I had short speeches on them but I though…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have great respect for the noble Lord, Lord Birt, and his practical ideas are very sensible, but I think that there is a much more fundamental problem that probably frustrates him. The Government are hiding from us what in fact they want to do on this Bill. I do not blame the noble and l…
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
Rare Cancers Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Elliott of Whitburn Bay, and congratulate her on bringing this Bill to the House and enabling all of us in this Chamber to focus on these issues. We have heard from a number of colleagues about their own personal stories and people they know, and of course …
Lords
Proceedings
15 January 2026
Iran
The Minister will not be surprised that I listened carefully to what she said about proscription when she talked about state-backed entities—I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Hanson, is also in his place—because that was the same argument used in relation to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They said at the …
Lords
Debate
13 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, perhaps I should just begin by agreeing with the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, about the farmers, but I note that they did not call to globalise the intifada.
I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Walney, and thank him for the work that he has done and continues to do on counterterrorism. It…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
With due respect to the noble Lord, I do not think that the 550 Iranian citizens who have been sanctioned by this Government would say that we have acted slowly. They are facing travel bans and financial freezing of their assets, and those 550 individuals known to this Government have a marker again…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 December 2025
Sydney Terrorist Attack
The noble Lord should know, and I think he does, that this Government condemn the attacks, condemn antisemitism and stand with the Jewish community. He asks what we are doing. We are putting in resources to support the Community Safety Trust and giving the police extra powers. We will not tolerate a…