Lord Gascoigne — Hansard — Westminster Brief

Lords Proceedings 10 June 2026

New Towns: Laying the Foundations (Built Environment Committee Report)

My Lords, before I begin, I say some words of thanks. First, I thank the 88 organisations and individuals who submitted written evidence, alongside the witnesses who appeared before the committee over 11 sessions. Secondly, I thank the team backstage: our excellent specialist adviser, Kelvin MacDona…

Lords Committee Stage 9 February 2026 3 contributions

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

My Lords, I am delighted to speak to my Amendment 185. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, with his rallying cry, and I hope that at least he supports what I am seeking to do with this amendment. To me, a simple yet essential principle that I want to introduce is that devolution m…

My Lords, it is a delight to kick off this group. I see the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, leaving at this crucial moment. I know that there are lots of other people with amendments here, so I will not dwell too long on what I want to say. On my amendment, I believe it is reasonable and genuinely important …

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Committee Stage 20 January 2026 2 contributions

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to speak for the first time in the passage of the Bill. I know we do not have to address it, but I was intending to speak at Second Reading and I had to pull out for personal reasons just beforehand. This is an issue that genuinely interests me. Every time I sit in t…

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister, as ever. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, got me going: she talked about her rose-tinted glasses and I had visions of the infamous Rose Garden treaty. I thought that this would be a new version of the Tory-Lib Dem alliance, but she dashed my hopes th…

Lords Oral Questions 8 January 2026

Israel: Trade

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Austin, on initiating this interesting debate. I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Stockwood, to his new role as Minister. As noble Lords have mentioned, Israel and the UK have a very strong trading relationship, with a high proportion of technology and high…

Lords Debate 27 October 2025

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, it is a pleasure to support the noble Baroness, Lady Willis, and her Amendment 88, to which I added my name. I refer to my interests, including my involvement in Peers for the Planet, and flag to the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, that I chair the Built Environment Select Committee, whose r…

Lords Debate 17 September 2025 2 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, I wish to speak to a whole raft of amendments in my name in this Marshalled List: Amendments 307, 308A, 309, 310, 312 and 314. All are designed to ensure that the money raised through Part 3 for the nature restoration fund is actually spent on nature recovery rather than bureaucracy and pr…

I know. There is nothing to prevent the EDP deeming that the money raised should not go to replace or improve something near what I have lost, but rather could be spent in beautiful Lancashire. As a result, while my family up there may gain from that benefit, people in Surrey would lose the benefit …

Lords Debate 17 September 2025 3 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 286 and 300, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Willis of Summertown, who, alas, gives her apologies that she is unable to speak today. I have signed the amendments, alongside other noble Lords, and hope I do them some justice. As noble Lords will see, thes…

My Lords, I am delighted to kick-start this group, not least after the great discussion we just had on the previous group. Equally, I am delighted and honoured to have the support of the noble Baronesses, Lady Young of Old Scone and Lady Parminter, for my amendment. Amendment 245, which is in my na…

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Debate 15 September 2025 2 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, it is beyond a joy to be here at this hour with some of my closest friends. I could not think of anything better to be doing right now. It is slightly ironic that what I will seek to do shortly is speak about some of our magnificent nocturnal species, including our beautiful barn owl. Unl…

I am very grateful to the Minister for her response and to everyone who took part; good points were raised by all those who participated. The noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, is absolutely right about the importance of a private nature market. My noble friend Lord Blencathra is right that pa…

Lords Debate 11 September 2025 2 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, if my noble friend Lord Banner is doing reverse declarations, I should probably just check; I think I have made them at this stage, but just in case, I declare that I am a director of Peers for the Planet, although I speak entirely independently of them on this and on all the amendments I …

My Lords, I am genuinely always grateful when the Minister speaks at the Dispatch Box, as well as to all those who spoke in this group. It has been a good, illuminating discussion, and I like the ambition of my noble friends Lord Banner and Lord Jackson and my noble friend—I will call her that—Lady …

Lords Debate 9 September 2025

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 138 but first, if I may, I will join in the love-in from the previous group for the noble Lord, Lord Khan, who was momentarily with us. I wish him all the best. As the Minister can testify, he was my shadow, alongside my noble friend, on the Front Bench when I …

Lords Debate 3 September 2025 2 contributions

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I am conscious that this has been a long group already, and I know that the Government Whips will be staring at me with glaring eyes. I did not intend to speak in this debate; this is my first raising of my head into the fray of the Bill. I was listening to what my noble friend and others …

I suppose that was a slight defect of the Bill, but that ship has sailed. The crucial point, which I will come back to—and I respect the noble Lord enormously—is that the Rwanda deal had a deterrent, and that is what we are lacking. It may have been only for small numbers, not anywhere near the numb…

Lords Debate 24 July 2025 5 contributions

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, the Minister said in the last group that he was running out of energy, so I reassure him that he is not hallucinating: I am not my noble friend Lady Coffey. However, I am moving Amendment 59 on her behalf. I refer noble Lords to my interests on the register and declare that I am on the boa…

My Lords, I am conscious that the hour is late and already the two Chief Whips are conspiring to tell us that we need to rattle through.

+3 more contributions in this session

Lords Debate 16 July 2025

Employment Rights Bill

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my good friend, and I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, for bringing forward this amendment, which I proudly support. I am sure that I speak for everyone in the Chamber in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, for sharing his experience in an…

Lords Debate 25 June 2025

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

My Lords, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill marks a turning point. An intention has been declared by the Government to pursue a major reconstruction of the UK economy. This intention is conveyed by the Bill. Many years ago, a Labour Government were faced with a similar task of post-war reconstru…

Lords Debate 13 May 2025

Employment Rights Bill

My Lords, I support Amendment 127 from my noble friend Lady Penn. I declare an interest—which I am increasingly discovering to be a growing financial interest—in the form of my two daughters, who are the most precious things to me. I confess that I am glad that it is my noble friend Lady Penn who i…

Lords Committee Stage 13 May 2025 3 contributions

High Streets (Built Environment Committee Report)

My Lords, it is an absolute pleasure for me, as the new chairman of the Built Environment Committee, to open this debate on the importance of the high street. In doing so, I put on record my own thanks to the then members of the committee—including my predecessor, my noble friend Lord Moylan, who ch…

My Lords, I am pleased that we have an opportunity to debate last year’s report on the future of high streets from the Built Environment Committee, chaired with such brio by the noble Lord, Lord Moylan. It was a very interesting and thoughtful process. We have an opportunity today to consider the Go…

+1 more contribution in this session