Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Unemployment: Autism
My Lords, I speak as the co-chair of the APPG on disability employment. One initiative that would benefit people with autism and disabled people in general, and which was in both the Labour manifesto and the 2024 King’s Speech, is an equality, ethnicity and disability Bill. Yet the Bill was pulled f…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Scottish Government: Social Security Benefits
My Lords, in the event of our being at war, which some experts suggest is increasingly likely by 2030, the massive and urgent recalibration of resources to defence will inevitably mean that those who need most support due to their disability will be hit the hardest. What advice are His Majesty’s Gov…
Lords
Debate
13 April 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak in support of my noble friend’s Amendments 268 and 287. In doing so, I should say that, although I welcome them, the fact that we are considering them this evening makes me sad, because they should not be necessary. The fact that they are exposes how little progress has bee…
Lords
Debate
27 March 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I make it clear at the outset that I do not intend to press my Amendment 193. I also support the other amendments in this group and look forward to learning and listening, as I am sure the noble and learned Lord does, before I wind up at the end of the debate on this group.
The modest and…
My Lords, I am mindful that noble Lords will be counting down the minutes to the start of a well-earned Easter Recess, so I will keep my remarks as short as I can. I hope I will be forgiven if I do not refer to individual contributions, but I was struck by the strong consensus that record keeping, a…
Lords
Debate
20 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 167 in the name of my noble friend Lady Fraser of Craigmaddie. In doing so, I should make it clear that I support the other amendments in this group, and I join other noble Lords in saying how good it is to see my noble and learned friend Lady Prentis of Banbury …
Lords
Debate
13 March 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, Amendments 162, 194 and 858 are in my name, and I should make clear that I do not intend to move them. Amendment 162 proposes that, where a person has Down syndrome or a learning disability, a registered medical practitioner must not initiate, suggest or raise the matter of assisted dying …
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton. That she spoke as powerfully as she did—and I hope to echo some of her words—draws attention to the fact that so few of us in this House have a severe disability and therefore look at these issues from first-hand experience.
I w…
Lords
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 344A in my name, which neatly follows on from that of my noble friend Lord Blencathra. I begin by saying how grateful I am for the expressions of support from across your Lordships’ House when I introduced this amendment in Committee. I particularly appreciated th…
I thank the Minister for that. Can he give an undertaking to the House that this non-statutory review will consult disabled people on their experiences? Can he write to me, and put a copy of the letter in the Library, saying which disability organisations will be consulted?
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise to support Amendment 105 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, to which I have added my name. I am saddened by the prejudice we have heard expressed by Members of your Lordships’ House this morning. For those of us with a lifelong congenital condition, this amendm…
I thank the noble and learned Lord for mentioning the importance of listening. I also thank him for the fact that, in dismissing every single amendment that your Lordships have considered, he has reminded the House of the extent to which he is listening. I ask him, because he failed to address my qu…
Lords
Committee Stage
4 February 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 165A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, and I thank him for tabling it. As a wheelchair user, I know from first-hand experience that if you cannot move around your own home or get out, to socialise with friends, go shopping or go to work, for…
Lords
Proceedings
26 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Day
My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, and to have heard the brilliant speech from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Coventry—I am pleased to welcome another sort-of West Midlander—and so many powerful speeches from all noble Lords. I look forward to listening to t…
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 44, so ably introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, and I thank her for tabling it. Today is an especially important day for me, because it marks exactly 30 years to the day since I had emergency neurosurgery in a desperate attempt to save my life following…
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 30 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Foster of Aghadrumsee, and the noble Lord, Lord Weir of Ballyholme. I also support the other amendments in this group.
I first put on record that while I like and respect the Government Chief Whip, as I know do so many M…
My Lords, I begin by quickly welcoming back the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, and thank her for reminding us so eloquently why we have missed her contributions.
I rise to speak to Amendment 34, and I thank my noble friend Lord Frost for tabling it and for his excellent speech. I also t…
Lords
Debate
9 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 120 and the amendments consequential to it. I should explain at the outset that my remarks incorporate the concerns of my noble friend Lord Farmer, who regrets that he is unable to be here. We are both worried, as I know are many other noble Lords, about current c…
Lords
Debate
8 January 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I speak very briefly in favour of the Motion. As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, said, this is not about support or opposition to the Bill. It is about how your Lordships’ House deals with a controversial piece of legislation, passed by the other House, which has come to us as a Private M…
Lords
Debate
17 December 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in speaking to Amendment 346C, I welcome the other amendments in this group in the names of my noble friends, Lord Blencathra and Lord McColl of Dulwich.
Amendment 346C is a modest and reasonable amendment, which would do exactly what it says on the tin. It would require the Home Secretar…
My Lords, I am very grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken. This has been a very useful debate that has brought the Committee together on an issue that has affected and is affecting so many of us.
The Minister was very kind in his remarks to me personally. Can I reciprocate by applauding the l…
Lords
Debate
15 December 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I apologise to the Committee for not being in my seat when my noble friend Lord Blencathra began his remarks on Amendment 330. I am very grateful to the Government Whip for taking into account the rather pathetic speed with which I can get from the Library to the Chamber. I thank him for t…
Lords
Debate
12 December 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 17, particularly in relation to the Scottish Ambulance Service, which my noble friend Lady Fraser of Craigmaddie mentioned briefly in her speech. I do so as someone who can remember just about all my journeys in ambulances—some in agony after a fracture, some w…
My Lords, I will keep my remarks very brief. I rise to speak in support of Amendments 30A and 119A in the name of my noble friend Lady Berridge. I thank her most sincerely for tabling them and thank my noble friend Lady Monckton for her supportive remarks. Disabled people and people with Down’s synd…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 December 2025
Wheelchair and Community Equipment Strategy
My Lords, I declare my interest as the conference chair of the National Association of Equipment Providers for the last five years. Before that, for 10 years I was director of communications for the British Healthcare Trades Association, representing manufacturers and suppliers of wheelchairs and as…
Lords
Debate
14 November 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I have every sympathy with the noble Lord, but I would like to thank the Chief Whip, the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, for his willingness to listen and to be flexible, especially when I, together with a number of colleagues, asked for the Second Reading to be split into two days. In the Chief…
My Lords, earlier on in the debate, there was a discussion concerning members of the committee, on who was or was not called, or who was denied the right to be called to it. I suggest that the straitjacket of the time this House allocated probably did not allow the relevant committee the appropriate…
Lords
Proceedings
31 October 2025
Ukraine
My Lords, it is possible that future historians will assess Vladimir Putin as one of the most strategically incompetent dictators in Russian history. A man who intended to destroy and denude Ukraine of its sovereign defence-industrial base has in fact has led to a stronger capability on the part of …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Fracture Liaison Services
My Lords, my thanks also go to the noble Lord, Lord Black, for this important debate, but most importantly for his persistence, which I believe has been instrumental in securing the Government’s commitment to deliver universal fracture liaison services by 2030—and I love his insistence on delivery.
…
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I found the dignified words of my noble friend Lord Shinkwin to be most powerful and persuasive. He used the phrase “Pandora’s box”, and I too oppose this Bill.
It is said that one of the lessons of history is that we do not learn lessons from history, so we must learn lessons from the hi…