Lords
Committee Stage
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I worry that this group of amendments indicates that, in the name of public health, state overreach can get completely carried away with itself. I ask that we take a step back and consider the state’s ability to interfere in the manufacture and R&D of legal products, which is completel…
The point I am making is that it is true that the majority of smokers do not sit around and discuss whether filters have a benefit to their health. I am quite sure that, had you asked me in that survey, I would not have had a clue. You would then say that I was being conned into using a filter. Howe…
Lords
Committee Stage
30 October 2025
10 contributions
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I stand with some trepidation on this one, but I will give it a go. I have some reservations about this series of amendments. On Amendment 12, I have a lot of sympathy with having more transparency as a general principle, but I ask the noble Baronesses, Lady Northover and Lady Walmsley, ho…
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, and the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, have made some interesting cases probing the issue of the high nicotine content of pouches. However, it is worth noting that Cancer Research does not support these amendments. It says that there may well be a need for…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
28 October 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, pick the bones out of that, if you wish. There is quite a lot to respond to there, to which I will not completely respond, but I think it characterises that this is an unusual ping-pong. Usually, most of it is cut and dried, and it is down to tiny nuances; that is not the case in this Bill…
My Lords, I support the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Burns, and of course I welcome the new team to the Front Bench. The noble Lord, Lord Collins of Highbury, will recall that we had pretty much the same debate in 2016, albeit that we were facing in different directions.
The noble Lord, Lord…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 October 2025
3 contributions
Non-crime Hate Incidents
No!
Hear, hear!
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
27 October 2025
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
My Lords, I do not want prohibition and I do not want smoking to be illegal, but I feel that I would be having a more honest discussion if that was what was being proposed. I feel that, in the end, this is a Bill about prohibition. One reason I am so uneasy about the generational smoking ban, which …
Lords
Debate
23 October 2025
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I am probably the last person to speak and mull over all that has happened. I thank sincerely the noble Baronesses, Lady Sherlock and Lady Anderson, and their team. They have been very helpful to us in answering our questions, trying to agree with us and offering a meeting to discuss the p…
Lords
Proceedings
22 October 2025
Rape Gangs: National Statutory Inquiry
My Lords, one reason why the survivors resigned was that there were very different accounts from them and the Minister for Safeguarding. Indeed, the Minister for Safeguarding implied that anyone who was saying different was using misinformation, in effect, accusing those survivors of lying.
In fact…
Lords
Debate
21 October 2025
2 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I appreciate the reassurances given by the Minister—they are taken into account—but none the less I have two amendments that could go even further. I hope that the Minister can listen.
Amendment 50 seeks to ensure that affected parties are informed by their own bank when they are flagged …
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, for tabling these amendments. I think they are genuinely key, and very important to resolve before we pass this Bill. I do not think they are minor or unimportant at all. Throughout the debates in Committee, and continuing here, concerns hav…
Lords
Proceedings
21 October 2025
Alleged Spying Case: Home Office Involvement
My Lords, the Government keep saying, and the Minister has reiterated today, “What can we do? We’re as frustrated as everyone else”. From the point of view of the British public, we have allegations of spying on elected MPs and a Government who basically say, “What can we do about the fact that we c…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, and I welcome the noble Baroness the Minister to her first Second Reading. I welcome elements of this new portmanteau Bill and the Minister’s assurances at the beginning of this debate of the focus being on fighting basic crime.
The Bill addr…
Lords
Debate
15 October 2025
4 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
My Lords, I find myself in a difficult position: I am not usually one to want to give more power to Ministers of State or bodies like the PSFA. However, I am very sensitive to contemporary events in which local authorities have not necessarily always been open about things happening on their watch. …
My Lords, throughout Committee, concerns were raised about the amount of information-gathering power the state will have, particularly the relationship between banks and the information that could be gained. I cannot emphasise enough the plea that these amendments make, particularly Amendment 3: tha…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
13 October 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I really support the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, who very articulately and with legal adeptness explained some of my reservations. I will raise just a few other points.
I am particularly opposed to Amendment 184, because it would further institutionalise—this is even its…
Lords
Debate
19 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The last time your Lordships’ House debated assisted dying was in October 2021. More than 130 noble Lords signed up for the debate. I did not. I was a relatively new Member of the House and I thought that, with so many speakers, someone was bound to say what I thought—but that was not the case. Ever…
Lords
Debate
16 September 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I will raise some reservations that I have about Amendments 501 and 502E, on bullying in schools, and Amendment 464, on the reporting of racism or faith-based bullying.
Bullying is a label that has been subject to the phenomena of concept creep. Bullying has now expanded enormously. It is…
My Lords, this group of amendments is important because I think we have a crisis in SEND provision. I am particularly attracted to Amendment 498, on the SEND provision review, in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Holmes of Richmond and Lord Watson of Invergowrie, and the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-T…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Proceedings
11 September 2025
Qatar: Israeli Strike
My Lords, first, despite the difficulties that have been caused by this recent action, does the Minister understand the frustration of knowing that the Hamas leaders, who planned the butchery on 7 October continue to know where the hostages are and be involved in that, stay safe? For many people in …
Lords
Debate
10 September 2025
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Sewell of Sanderstead, gave us an inspiring scene-setter for the next groups of amendments that we are discussing. It was a taster of why the decisions that we make on this Bill matter to so many pupils and young people. This is why I urge the Government not to throw t…
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, it is not just ordinary people who do not understand it. I do not understand it at all, logically. Mind you, I am an ordinary person.
The discussion so far has been very helpful in raising some key issues that the country is preoccupied with. The sensible way to approach this, which peopl…
I was about to go on to quote the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, who said that a country may be safe generally but not for a particular section of the population. The noble Baroness more or less made the point there that she has just made now about not generalising. I agree that it is difficult to say…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I hope that the devastating interventions that we have heard so far will make the Government rethink. They deserve the ridicule being poured on them. I just want to make two additional points.
Clause 113 completely undermines the Government’s idea that the Bill is all about enhancing work…
My Lords—
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I feel in something of a time warp, because I opposed Clause 62 in Committee and tried to get it dropped, but I want to go back to the discussion we were having on Amendment 147. I support this amendment, because I genuinely think there are very good reasons why the trade union movement sh…
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity
My Lords, first, does the Minister recognise the legitimate fury and frustration of local people, whether in Epping or Diss, because they feel their voices are not being heard in relation to their concerns about the hotels? They genuinely fear for their children because of crimes committed by people…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
Online Communication Offence Arrests
My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Lebedev, on securing this timely debate. I know that he has been a great champion of the media and free speech for many years.
At the heart of this debate lies the matter of ensuring that the police have the resources, tools and training to arrest…
Lords
Debate
16 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, Amendment 99 seeks to remove the restriction that only trade union representatives or a work colleague may accompany an employee to a disciplinary or grievance hearing. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Sharpe of Epsom, Lord Ashcombe and Lord Londesborough, for supporting what is a modest and …
I think the Minister may have answered his own question there, because if the consultation was with trade unionists about whether there was any need for non-trade unionists to go in, then they would give you one answer. I want to clarify one thing: it is true that I have never been a trade union off…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
14 July 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I support all the amendments in this group, but especially Amendment 1. As we start Report, and the first of several groups focusing on zero-hours contracts—although I will speak only on this group—I want to emphasise why getting the wording and balance right in this part of the Bill is im…
My Lords, in the evidence and analysis document that the Government very helpfully gave us last week, it notes that up to 1.3 million employees will get a new entitlement to statutory sick pay and that that will increase the amount of sick pay that workers receive by around £400 million a year. At f…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
Housing: National Tenant Body
I can only repeat what I have said: if tenants want this body, we will work with them and do our best to make it happen. I do not think that anyone is dilly-dallying, but it is very important that the tenant voice be made clear in how this is set up, what it will do and how it will move forward. I a…