Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
European Entry and Exit System
My Lords, I sense this is going against the masochistic mood of the House, but how is a failure of the EU our fault? The noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, in asking her question, said her fondness for the EU does not blind her to the fact that this is a chaotic and badly implemented scheme—for everyone,…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
Social Media: Use of X by Government Departments
My Lords, I was a little alarmed by the Minister’s response to the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire. He does not like some things that are being said on X. He was not talking about incitement, harassment or the promotion of illegal activities. He specifically cited campaigning for a candidate wh…
Lords
Proceedings
22 June 2026
Master’s Level History Scholarships
My Lords, I was very encouraged by the Minister’s excellent Answer to the excellent Question from the noble Lord, Lord Barber. We do indeed need to remember where we are from, and history is a manual of what works and what does not. Can the Minister think of a single example—anywhere in human histor…
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Steel Tariffs
My Lords, the French economist Frédéric Bastiat said that the distinguishing feature of a good economist is looking beyond the visible and seeing the secondary consequences. There are some 34,000 people employed in the steel sector in this country; one can argue about whether protectionism will help…
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
Supermarkets: Voluntary Price Caps
My Lords, at a time of rising economic populism, there is a responsibility on all of us in this House, and especially Ministers, to be calm, factual and accurate. To follow on from the remarks of my friend the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, and the noble Lord, Lord Sahota, there is a wid…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 March 2026
EU Directive: Adequate Minimum Wages
The noble Lord would not expect me to agree with him, and I do not. As I mentioned in yesterday’s debate on the regret amendment, and I shall share it again, Confucius reminds us that harmony among people is the best foundation for great achievement, and when we work together, success belongs to all…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
Birmingham City Council and Unite: Refuse Workers’ Pay
I am pleased to tell the noble Lord that this year, very recently, the council passed a balanced revenue budget without the need for exceptional financial support for the first time in recent years. This is possible because the Government delivered fairer funding, meaning that Birmingham will receiv…
Lords
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
Imran Khan: Imprisonment
We have concerns, which I know the noble Lord shares, about the election in 2024 and we raise these with the Government of Pakistan. But one of the reasons why it is important to keep our trade and development relationships with Pakistan thriving is so we can work specifically on these issues of dem…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
Donations to Political Parties
My Lords, I appreciate the panache and brio with which the noble Lord, Lord Hannan, delivers his speeches, but I have to say that I disagree with him on state funding. I will develop that in the time available to me. JS Mill and Thomas Jefferson lived some time ago, long before the days of what we w…
Lords
Proceedings
22 January 2026
Retail and Hospitality Sector
My Lords, it is a great honour to rise for the first time here in your Lordships’ House, and I do so with a profound sense of humility. To sit among Members whose experience, wisdom and dedication to public service I have long admired is both a privilege and a responsibility I do not take lightly.
…
Lords
Debate
12 January 2026
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, this has been an important debate on an important Bill and a considerable treaty that impacts on people’s lives and on international law, and which has direct relevance to UK national security. But this regret amendment has a bit of a Cambodia year zero feel to it, as if it all started las…
Lords
Oral Questions
7 January 2026
Shamima Begum
I can always rely on the noble Lord to take a serious issue and bring it down to a unserious point. I will ensure that we have the vote at 16. It is Labour Government policy; it was provided for at the general election. People will still choose how to vote at the age of 16. If you can join the Army,…
Lords
Debate
5 January 2026
2 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I add my voice to those of the noble and gallant Lords, Lord Craig of Radley and Lord Houghton of Richmond. It seems to me that this is precisely the kind of question that ought to have been looked at in detail. The more we have sat here and gone through clause by clause, the more it seems…
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 11, 12, 13 and 16, in the name of my noble friend Lord Lilley, who is detained by difficult transport situations in France—he is perhaps not the only person in that situation—and, in the interest of brevity, to my own Amendments 24 and 25. Some of them would mak…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 December 2025
Children: Social Media
I do not follow that logic at all. People have different views on online content, and trying to balance the potential benefit that children can have from accessing the digital world with trying to protect them from the harms that they can also see is exactly what joins together many around this Hous…
Lords
Debate
25 November 2025
7 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Morrow. I thank the Ministers for the patience and courtesy that they have displayed all evening. The two Ministers and the Whip know that they are among my favourite Peers, not just my favourite Government Front-Benchers, and they have been …
My Lord, I beg leave to propose my Amendments 20L, 20N and 20P. In the interests of brevity and immediacy, I will speak only on Amendment 20L, because I have covered the others in previous groups. This is the amendment that requires the Secretary of State to look at the impact of this treaty on othe…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
25 November 2025
8 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 78 and in support of the amendments of the noble Lords, Lord Hay and Lord Weir, the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, and my noble friend Lord Callanan. The crux of this debate is about ending the dream of return for most British Chagossians. As long as they were Br…
I was a Member of the European Parliament, and I spoke out quite strongly against that Government. I hope the noble Lord knows me well enough to know that I was never a party line man. I thought it was an appalling thing to do then, and I still think it is an appalling thing to do.
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
18 November 2025
7 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I beg leave to move the amendment standing in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Morrow.
The financial aspects of this Bill are the easiest for people not involved to understand. It does seem bizarre that at a time when we are borrowing money and scratching around for savings, we are raisin…
Yes.
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
18 November 2025
11 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I will start with the amendment from my noble friend Lord Callanan and the objection to it from the noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, which was that this wasincompatible with the decision taken by Parliament. I will just quote—because I think it is helpful—Article 18 of the treaty. It stat…
I will, of course, invite an intervention. I do not know what the rules are on intervening on an intervention.
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 November 2025
Caribbean: US Military Action
I do not know the answer to some of what the noble Lord has just said, and I do not think I even understand part of it; I have no idea of the road he has talked about, for example. I will review it and get back to him.
I will just lay out what the UK’s Venezuela policy is, because I think it is imp…
Lords
Debate
4 November 2025
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
My Lords, I shallow narrow down the grand anti-colonial views of my noble friend Lord Hannan—it was a splendid piece of radical demography, if I may say so, and really well done—to the point made very clearly by the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, and my good and noble friend Lord Bellingham, which is th…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Elon Musk
Let me find the actual comment, if I may. Does the noble Lord then agree with the following comment from Elon Musk, which he portrayed down the television line to the rally?
“You’re in a fundamental situation here. Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back…
Lords
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025
My Lords, it is always a privilege to rise in this House, and it is a particular honour to contribute in a debate comprising the excellent maiden speech of my noble friend Lady Lloyd of Effra. I know all noble Lords will look forward with me to her contribution to this House and, in the context of t…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 September 2025
Road Pricing
I will not speculate now or give a running commentary on the next fiscal forecast. The OBR will produce a new forecast in the autumn for the annual Budget in the usual way, and the Chancellor will take decisions based on that forecast.
Lords
Oral Questions
10 September 2025
Sickness Benefits: In-person Interviews
My Lords, I am sure that, if the noble Lord tracked those statistics back, he would see when the numbers began to rise—it was not under this Government. I know that he is making not a partisan point but a broader point; I fully accept that.
The good news is that, as the noble Lord may have noticed …