Lords
Debate
2 February 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support the mitigating amendments from a number of noble Lords, but I particularly support the proposition from the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton, that Clause 191 should not stand part of the Bill. I do so for a number of reasons; some are to do with principle and some to do with parliam…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
2 contributions
China: Human Rights and UK National Security
My Lords, human rights are a non-negotiable part of this Government’s approach to China. During his recent visit, the Prime Minister raised human rights and the case of Jimmy Lai with President Xi. The Government will continue to press China on human rights and work with international partners to en…
I am grateful to the noble Lord, and I admire hugely the consistency with which he raises these issues. He is absolutely right to say that, although there is clearly some progress on the measures that have affected our parliamentarians and, as he says, former parliamentarians such as Tim Loughton, t…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 February 2026
China: Jimmy Lai
We agree that Jimmy Lai ought to be released immediately because he should not be imprisoned. It is right that the UK Government engage with China. After such a long time of the UK not having engaged in this way, this is not the sort of situation where we get everything we want with one visit. The r…
Lords
Oral Questions
27 January 2026
Asylum and Immigration: Children
I am grateful to the noble Lord. The last hotel that dealt with unaccompanied children was closed by the previous Government in January 2024. At the Home Office we are committed to working with local councils, the police and others to find out what has happened. It is a disgraceful episode that more…
Lords
Proceedings
26 January 2026
Chinese Embassy
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for repeating the Statement. She made a great deal in her remarks of the quasi-judicial process that has been used. No reference, though, has been made to the Royal Mint Court Residents Association’s decision to open a judicial case challenging the mega-embass…
Lords
Debate
20 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Banner. I have signed Amendments 417 and 419. The noble Lord has made a powerful, constructive and eloquent case for we should try to tackle the public interest compensation orders and deal with the gap that is left by confiscation orde…
Lords
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Atrocity Crimes
My Lords, in welcoming all noble Lords who are participating in this Question for Short Debate on preventing mass atrocities, I begin by thanking the Minister for the interest she has shown in the Standing Group on Atrocity Crimes report. I am a member of that group, and I am grateful too for the me…
My Lords, in addition to thanking the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for securing this timely debate, I thank him for all he does in advocating for the rights of those most in need around the world. We are grateful for the challenging and powerful way he has opened this debate.
My focus is on the mechanis…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
United States: Withdrawal from International Organisations
I completely agree with the noble Lord and thank him for raising Sudan and what has happened in Darfur. I was encouraged to see the United States’ commitment to OCHA under the leadership of Tom Fletcher. I am meeting Tom tomorrow, and I will be discussing the very issues that the noble Lord has ment…
Lords
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Iran: Protests
One of the issues that we face is our current inability to get verifiable information out of Iran, because the regime has closed the internet. That makes life very difficult. However, the noble Lord is absolutely right to remind us of some of the horrors that we know about already. As more informati…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 January 2026
Defending Democracy Taskforce
It is not acceptable for foreign nations to threaten individuals who happen to reside in the United Kingdom, and I condemn any actions taken by foreign nations to do that. As I have said to the noble Lord on a number of occasions previously, if there are particular individuals who wish to draw conce…
Lords
Oral Questions
7 January 2026
Shamima Begum
I respect the noble Lord and his representations, but the decision in relation to the individual case was taken having considered evidence and supported by both the previous Government and this Government. With the litigation that is currently ongoing in the European court, I cannot say much from th…
Lords
Proceedings
17 December 2025
Jimmy Lai Conviction
My Lords, I first draw attention to my roles as a vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong, as a patron of Hong Kong Watch and as chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which published a report on transnational repression earlier this year and specifically called for Ch…
Lords
Proceedings
18 November 2025
China Espionage: Government Security Response
My Lords, I will try not to outlive the welcome that the Minister extended to me and the nice words expressed by so many colleagues from all sides of the House. I hope that she will forgive me if I press her further on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and the point abou…
Lords
Oral Questions
13 November 2025
2 contributions
Hillsborough Law
My Lords, the Prime Minister opened last week’s House of Commons debate on the Second Reading of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill—the Hillsborough law—with what he described as
“a simple acknowledgment, long overdue, that the British state failed the families and victims of Hillsborough to a…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for initiating this debate in such a magisterial way. I take this opportunity to thank and pay tribute to him for all his decades of work on behalf of the Hillsborough families.
The Bill is important because, as my right honourable friend the Prime Mini…
Lords
Debate
5 November 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, first, I express my thanks to many noble Lords, both those in the Chamber this evening and others outside it. I felt a tsunami of good wishes and kindness since experiencing a routine bus journey to your Lordships’ House at 8.15 am one morning, after which I ended up with a broken back, co…
My Lords, the Minister has indeed done the issues justice. I am grateful to him, not least for the tone he adopted in the reply he gave to the points that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, and I made in our speeches about Hong Kong.
I heard what the Minister said about flexibility. That is one of t…
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I return to something I said in the earlier groups of amendments. The country that is at the heart of so much of this debate and previous debates is Rwanda. The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, has introduced his amendments with customary coherence but, ultimately, I do not think he has thought t…
I am very happy to butt in and to say that was exactly the point I wanted to make. The noble Lord referred us to subsection (1) in the amendment and the phrase “in general”. That in itself needs to be fleshed out as to what it really means. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has asked the right questi…
Lords
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I echo the remarks that the noble Lord, Lord Deben, made about the blame game and the importance of us all working with the Government to do what we can to try to tackle the fundamental issues that are influencing the nature of this huge crisis. As I have said before—I repeat the figure no…
Well, they sent an email. The noble Lord, Lord German, is right to point out, from a sedentary position, that it was perhaps not done through the most courteous of routes. However, the point is that those nine countries—Poland was another—are not illiberal countries and they are not led by people wh…
Lords
Oral Questions
24 July 2025
“Hillsborough Law”
The noble Lord asked a similar question when we last spoke about this very serious issue. As I shared then with the House, I also have a personal connection in that the brother of a friend of mine was killed at Hillsborough. The noble Lord asked about parity of arms. Our manifesto commitment was to
…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Great British Energy: Nuclear Development
We are talking to British producers and manufacturers of solar cells to see how we can invest in that and advance the technology on solar cells so that we do not have to rely on foreign imports. I get the noble Lord’s question on whether we are being as ethical as we possibly can be. We are building…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Official Development Assistance
I agree with that. We can be proud of the work that this country has done on conflict prevention, on demining and on many other areas connected to the issues he raises, not least accountability. But you only have to listen to the news coming out of Gaza this morning to be confronted with the fact th…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 July 2025
Syria: Druze Community
It is completely wrong in any context for somebody to be harmed or persecuted purely on the basis of what they happen to believe. When the Foreign Secretary was in Damascus recently speaking to the Government of Syria and the President, he expressed our concern about the persecution of religious min…
Lords
Debate
10 July 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, I will be brief, because I agree wholeheartedly with the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, particularly about the position of domestic migrant workers. This is something we will come back to at later stages of the Bill, but as the noble Baroness has raised it now, I just put on record how much …
My Lords, whether or not President Macron is tuned into our debate today and supportive of what noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, has just said, she will be glad to know, as I was, that the British Red Cross says:
“Extending the relevant clause to include refugee family reunion would ensure families, i…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
8 July 2025
12 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, the first part of day 2 in Committee deals with organised immigration crime offences. We will hear later about safeguards and modern slavery, and will return to the question of what might constitute a reasonable explanation on the part of an irregular migrant, but we begin with Amendments …
The example that Liberty gave—the committee did not invent it—is built on a statement by the committee that:
“There is no express distinction in clause 16 between those who engage in such conduct as smugglers, and those who engage in such conduct as asylum seekers, victims of modern slavery, or per…
+10 more contributions in this session