Lords
Debate
27 February 2026
6 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, my remarks follow on, very usefully, from those of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff. She made some points I was going to make, so I will not make them, but I will make some others.
We should consider the interaction between the rather murky world of politics and the role of the…
I think that is self-evidently true in the real world, if I can put it that way.
I note that the present Prime Minister is himself personally not neutral. As we now well know, he promised Esther Rantzen that assisted dying would be made legal, although that was not a promise made to the British ele…
+4 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
27 February 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, I rise because as this discussion started somebody in my vicinity said, “If this isn’t filibustering, I don’t know what is”. I want to point out that it is demoralising to have one’s reputation impugned and defamed with the suggestion that somehow all people are doing is playing parliament…
Lords
Debate
25 February 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, there is a lot in this group. The Government are undoubtedly sincere in wanting to use the Bill to further tackle anti-social behaviour, and such moves to take on this blight on communities will certainly be popular. However, we have to pause a moment and say that there is already a pletho…
I rise just to clarify and to help the Minister. I would not want in any way to stop the Government implementing their manifesto promises. The aim of the review was not to stop respect orders; it was to suggest that the anti-social behaviour on the statute book was reviewed before respect orders wer…
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
3 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I commend the noble Lord, Lord Udny-Lister, for helping to differentiate products and for having some precision in the way we discuss these issues. I have been concerned throughout about a one-size-fits-all approach. I do not think it helps anyone. It certainly does not help in relation to…
My Lords, I wanted to speak to two amendments in this group that are about the opposite ends of the retail spectrum. On the one hand, there are law-abiding shopkeepers who need to be given a certain leeway if they mess up at the start of this legislation. At the other end of the spectrum are those o…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
24 February 2026
4 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, called this a world-leading policy. It is world-leading, because no one else in the world has chosen this policy. One wants to know why. At least the noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Birmingham, admitted that this was novel and therefore untested. Can we at least h…
I am allowed to come back on that. All I want to say is that I do not want it to go down in Hansard that I am such a libertarian that I support the smoking of cannabis: I am not Zack Polanski. It is also the case that we have to think of the unintended consequences and the real world and real young …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
Counter-Extremism Strategy
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for initiating this debate. He has been consistent and persistent in his arguments, which he was also able to spell out in his Times article on Tuesday. The thousand comments, almost all in support, were striking, expressing anxiety and concern about the rise of ter…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
Ambassadors: Vetting Process
What I do agree with the noble Baroness about—I commend her on doing this—is focusing her question on those women and girls who were victims of a heinous paedophile. That is the right thing to do. Obviously, and the Prime Minister would be the very first person to say this, this was a bad decision. …
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 103. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for adding her name to it. It is a modest amendment simply seeking to ensure that a person is not categorised as terminally ill if they have refused life-saving treatment because they are influenced by a mental dis…
I also want to respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada. Words do matter, which is why plain speaking matters. Being told that you cannot say certain words because they might offend someone is unhelpful. Can the noble Baronesses respond to the fact that, in opinion polling, if people are asked whe…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, if ever there was a day to consider whether we should just assume guilt by association, then today’s political context provides us with a reminder that it is complicated. I have added my name to Amendment 486 on reform of joint enterprise, tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier…
We need them to understand that the criminal justice system is not targeting them personally for crime but is fair and proportionate. That is what we should do.
Lords
Debate
3 February 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, one year ago today, on 3 February 2025, 15 year-old Harvey Willgoose was tragically stabbed in the heart at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield. It happened in the school courtyard in the lunch break, and the perpetrator was Mohammed Umar Khan. An independent review has been commi…
Lords
Debate
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 220, relating to the guidance for schools on gender-questioning children, which is still long overdue and which I think we have to ensure happens as quickly as possible. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, for having pursued this and for tabl…
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 207 to create a duty to keep schools open for attendance. The speeches that have been made excellently explained why.
I arrived in this House during lockdown, and I was shocked—genuinely, to the core—by the ease with which people in this House on all side…
Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Can I clarify something in relation to the amendment? Very often the women we are talking about are not prosecuted and do not end up in court. The problem is that the process is the punishment—as we know from other instances.
How does the noble Lord deal with the fact that the majority of the women…
My Lords, I mainly want to defend Clause 191 remaining in the Bill, but with some reservations. Before that, I want to acknowledge public interest in this issue and a popular worry that it is all about legalising abortion up to birth. That is what is being discussed. Worse than that, people believe …
Lords
Debate
30 January 2026
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, we should thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Gerada and Lady Pidgeon, for raising important counters to a lot of these contributions, because it is important that we do not fetishise face-to-face communication as infallible. It offers no guarantee that comprehension happens, that people list…
My Lords, the Government’s 10-year health plan for England seeks to
“make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world”.
Like others, I think that is an incredibly exciting prospect. I do not want it to be dystopian. I think that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Hereford makes an…
Lords
Proceedings
30 January 2026
Arrangement of Business
My Lords, very briefly, I would like to put on record my thanks to the Chief Whip for being so helpful to all sides in this whole procedure. Following on from the point from the noble Lord, Lord Moore, in the various public events that I have done in the last week, I have been told by members of the…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
8 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 438C in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Cash, on the recording of ethnicity in police data. I do not profess to have the noble Baroness’s expertise in this area in terms of her work at the Equality and Human Rights Commission or as a distinguished law…
My Lords, Amendment 438D would
“exempt the police from the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010, so as to ensure they are solely committed to effectively carrying out their policing functions”.
When I read that I wished that we could apply this exemption across the board. I wish…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
4 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I totally support Amendment 436 on the collection of enforcement data; the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, and the noble Lord, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, have explained well why I do. But I am rising to speak to Amendment 437 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, ca…
My Lords, I have enthusiastically added my name to Amendment 438B, now replaced by Amendment 438EF, on the recording of biological sex in police data to prevent reliance in administrative records on self-identification and so on. The noble Baroness, Lady Cash, has laid out the arguments with great c…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
23 January 2026
5 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I ask the noble Lord, Lord Birt, to reflect on the equality implications of this suggestion of a special treatment service for those seeking assisted death. Following on from the previous contribution from the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, it seems to me that everybody would want, if they a…
I honestly believe that noble Lords are asking this question in good faith. I reiterate to the Minister—maybe she can think about this and come back—that we are being asked to make a decision about a huge change in healthcare provision, staffing and money, and the nature of what the NHS is. We are n…
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Bill
My Lords, I will speak very briefly, and I will try to address that. I will speak briefly not because the subject is not important—it is such an important subject that there could be no end of words said about it—but because we are focusing on the Commons reason and our response to it. For reasons t…
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, once upon a time, in a previous moral panic about children’s safety, parents reacted to the media and politicians catastrophising by stopping their offspring playing outside unsupervised. The unintended consequence was the creation of what became known as cotton wool kids, prone to risk av…
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I am, of course, also delighted that this amendment is now unnecessary and irrelevant, but it fits into some broader concerns that have been expressed in Committee, such as the planned nationwide rollout of police-operated live facial recognition cameras and a whole range of technology use…
Can the noble Lord clarify something? Initially, those of us who spoke suggested that possibly this amendment was not needed because digital ID was not an immediate issue and was not going to be brought in as a single identifier. So far, the Minister’s arguments have been a justification for digital…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
19 January 2026
Equality and Human Rights Commission: Code of Practice
The Government have been clear that the judgment provides clarity around the definition of sex within the Equality Act. We have been clear that therefore all providers should be following that, taking specialist legal advice where necessary, and ensuring that, with respect for everybody’s rights and…
Lords
Debate
16 January 2026
4 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton of Dallington Forest, for that excellently clear way of expressing some of the discomfort and what we would like to see. I would be much happier and feel that I did not have to speak too much if I was getting reassurance and seeing on paper what ex…
If the doctor was required to ask what someone’s motivation was, and the patient said, “I just really don’t want to be a burden on my family; it’s too intolerable”, but they have been told they are terminally ill relatively recently, is it not possible that there could be an intervention that would …
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
15 January 2026
5 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 382F, an amendment that, carefully and proportionately, takes on tackling the problems of the ever-growing number of overlapping Acts and statutes that are used to limit free speech. If public order laws on protest are, to quote the Liberal Democrat Benche…
Before the noble Baroness finishes, I did not want to interrupt what I thought was a very helpful contribution that laid out the kind of dilemmas that we face, but I will just ask for a couple of points of clarification to see where we might agree or disagree. In relation to John Stuart Mill’s harm …
+3 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
14 January 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, when I saw Amendment 97, I was pleased to see that the focus was on the post-implementation review report on the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act. I am keen that the UK Government dig deeper into the impact of what is known as the Welsh smacking ban. I a…
I do not think that that was an intervention on my speech, but there is a huge difference between a small tap and beating a child; that is the point. A small tap should not be illegal; beating a child is illegal.