Lords
Proceedings
9 July 2026
UK Migration
I thank the Minister for that. I congratulate the Government on reducing net migration from, as the Minister said, its peak of 900,000 to 171,000, an impressive reduction of approximately 82%. However, despite this significant progress, a recent opinion poll suggests that almost half the public stil…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Police Leadership Commission Report
My Lords, I read this report from cover to cover. It acknowledges that ethnic-minority officers have a poorer retention rate and slower progression because they continue to face discrimination within their organisation. Some 20 years ago, when I was on the West Mercia Police Authority as a councillo…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Edinburgh Anti-Muslim Attacks
My Lords, the Edinburgh incident happened last week. In Belfast the week before that, people were driven out of their homes because they were immigrants. A couple of weeks ago, a Sikh was attacked in the West Midlands; and a couple of months ago, two female Sikhs were raped in their homes—and so on …
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
Transnational Marriage Abandonment
My Lords, in recent months, I came across a very strange case in my community. A couple who had lived here for about three or four years had a child, and they were working and paying their taxes and so on. They then went on holiday to India and took their child with them. On their way back, they wer…
Lords
Proceedings
4 June 2026
Temporary Skilled Worker Visas: Creative Occupations
My Lords, when a skilled worker applies for a job in the UK, he pays thousands of pounds to the Home Office in fees, and then he pays thousands of pounds in surcharge every year to the National Health Service. He pays his taxes, national insurance and council tax, and in return he gets nothing—none …
Lords
Proceedings
20 May 2026
Supermarkets: Voluntary Price Caps
My Lords, first, I congratulate the Government on bringing inflation down to 2.8% and removing the 5p fuel duty. If the Government had a quiet word with the supermarkets making excessive profits of billions and billions of pounds, telling them to take it easy and not make that much profit, I am sure…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
Local Government Pension Scheme
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on planning to reintroduce the pension scheme for local councillors, which was abolished in 2015 by the noble Lord, Lord Pickles, when he was the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in the other place. Thousands of councillors lost their pe…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will focus my remarks on the proposed changes to settlement rights for overseas workers. I recognise the need to balance compassion with control and fairness with sustainability. However, I must express my deep concern regarding the proposal to extend the qualifying period for indefinite…
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
King’s Speech
My Lords, I will focus my remarks on the proposed changes to settlement rights for overseas workers. I recognise the need to balance compassion with control and fairness with sustainability. However, I must express my deep concern regarding the proposal to extend the qualifying period for indefinite…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 April 2026
Midwives: Graduate Guarantee
The issue is more a misalignment of numbers than a straightforward shortage, as the number of midwives has increased. There was a 2.6% increase in January 2026 compared to the year before, so the trajectory is good. The misalignment, as I have explained, is that we are dealing with a situation where…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Local Resilience Forums
The local government reorganisation and devolution programme is still ongoing, as I am sure my noble friend will be aware. It is the Government’s intention that when police and crime commissioners come to the end of their terms, there will be mayors in place to take over their duties. We will be mak…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
Child Poverty and Homelessness: Asylum and Settlement Policies
As my noble friend knows, the earned settlement consultation ran for 12 weeks. It began on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026. We are now reviewing and analysing all the responses received. That analysis will help us inform the development of that earned settlement model. I value the co…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 March 2026
Local Government Reorganisation
I am delighted to tell my noble friend that the Government are bringing back pensions for local councillors. It is very important that they do that; local councillors provide outstanding service for their communities and many of them have to give up considerable aspects of their working life to do s…
Lords
Committee Stage
4 March 2026
UK-India: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
I shall save my panegyric on the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, for 16 March. I had prepared several pages of panegyric, but he throttled me by reminding me that he has yet one more report prepared under his supervision to present to us.
It is a privilege to take part in the debate on this…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
2 contributions
Post Office Capture and Horizon Scandals
My Lords, as of 31 January 2026, over £1.4 billion has been paid to more than 11,300 victims of the Horizon scandal. The Government are also making strong progress in implementing recommendations from volume 1 of the Horizon inquiry, strengthening the operation of the schemes and accelerating the de…
I am grateful to my noble friend for his question and am truly sorry to hear about the terrible ordeal faced by Mr Gill and his wife. We remain firmly committed to ensuring that those affected by the Capture and Horizon systems receive the redress they fully deserve. The Government and the Post Offi…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
Donations to Political Parties
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sikka, for securing this important debate. I will be positive. Legitimacy and transparency must be at the heart of political-party finance. I share the concerns about hostile foreign states trying to exert influence in this way, but these concerns must not lead…
Lords
Oral Questions
11 February 2026
New Homes Target
As I stated, I remind my noble friend that we see our partnership with local authorities as critical to delivering the housing numbers we need. The Planning and Infrastructure Act that we passed last year will accelerate housebuilding while preserving important environmental protections, making sure…
Lords
Proceedings
26 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Day
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to say a few words in the gap and to pay tribute to the many excellent speeches that we have heard in this debate, including, particularly, the admirable maiden speech of the right reverend Prelate.
As I have mentioned before, my grandmother was killed in…
Lords
Oral Questions
7 January 2026
Shamima Begum
I am grateful to my noble friend, but I come back to the point that the decision to deprive Shamima Begum of her British citizenship, undertaken by the previous Government and supported by this Government, was taken because she was deemed to pose, under legislation, a national security threat at tha…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Fair Funding Review
The first thing we did was restore the mandatory housing targets because, first, it did not make any sense to us. We wanted to deliver an overall target across the country but we were not saying what part in that each local authority played. Secondly, we know there are a lot of pressures facing loca…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Non-Crime Hate Incidents
Again, there are robust mechanisms in place to deal with harassment, racial prejudice and other forms of harassing and abusive and threatening behaviour. The key element of a non-crime hate incident is that it does not reach a threshold of a crime incident but is, in essence, a method of collecting …
Lords
Oral Questions
18 November 2025
Carer’s Allowance: Overpayments Review
My Lords, the care route admitted more than 150,000 workers in three years. There have been changes to the Immigration Rules, but that will not prevent those who want to from building a career in the sector, because there is a transition period until July 2028, which allows, for example, in-country …
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Elon Musk
I am grateful to my noble friend for his question. As with the noble Baroness’s question on Muslim women earlier, it is absolutely important that people are not attacked for a characteristic that they cannot change. Part of the problem with the approach of Mr Musk is that he plays to people who wish…