Lord Alton of Liverpool — Hansard

Lords Oral Questions 21 July 2025

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…

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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…

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Lords Oral Questions 7 July 2025

Artificial Intelligence: News Media

I will need to get back to the noble Lord on the second point. On the first point, I am more than happy to watch the session to which he refers. As noble Lords are aware, we have a number of late sitting days, so I will make sure I use at least one of the evenings to watch what sounds like a really …

Lords Oral Questions 30 June 2025

School Libraries

My dad did the same, and I have always been extremely grateful to him for that. The noble Lord is right that the first people who can encourage children to love books are their parents. That is why, through the family support and the Best Start f or Life information that we provide to parents, ways …

Lords Debate 26 June 2025 5 contributions

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, has given us a foretaste of the consideration we will give to Amendment 206, tabled by her noble friend Lady Hamwee and to which I have added my name, which is about Europol. I agree with what she said. I also agree with the interventions made by other nob…

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend, who makes a really important point about the importance of looking again at the things we committed ourselves to in the circumstances in which those were signed. I reassure him that the Joint Committee takes that view too. While we were in Strasbourg, we d…

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Lords Proceedings 26 June 2025

National Security Strategy

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, describes Iran, North Korea, China and Russia as “a deadly quartet”, all of which have sanctioned Members of the British Parliament, including Members of your Lordships’ House. China, as we have just heard, continues to intimidate Taiwan, to co…

Lords Proceedings 12 June 2025

Chinese Embassy Development

My Lords, it is hard to imagine that, if in 1980 the former Soviet Union had asked for a prime site for a new mega-embassy, we in Parliament would have agreed. It is even harder for me to understand why we are doing this for a regime accused by the House of Commons of genocide against Uyghur Muslims…

Lords Oral Questions 9 June 2025

United Nations International Day of Peace

I have to confess that I did not have time over the weekend—sadly, I was not in the country—but I accept what the noble Lord says. It is absolutely vital that accountability is part of the mechanisms that we have to use here. He is right that it is about how we prevent these atrocities, and one sure…

Lords Oral Questions 5 June 2025

Ukraine: UK Security Guarantee

What has happened to those children is abhorrent, and they should be returned immediately. My understanding is that the Ukrainians have now issued a list of names to the Russians, to enable them to be returned immediately. I will look into the issue of the funding for the technology—that is very imp…

Lords Oral Questions 22 May 2025

Jimmy Lai

I said in my opening comments that this Government are absolutely committed to pursuing this case and we will do so at all levels. Certainly, the Foreign Secretary has done so, but so has the Prime Minister in his meeting with President Xi. I know that Minister West has also met with Jimmy Lai’s son…

Lords Proceedings 19 May 2025

Recalled Offenders: Sentencing Limits

My Lords, many of us applauded the appointment of the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, as the Prisons Minister, because he has such commitment to this cause and we still applaud him for the work that he is doing. Is it not obvious from the questions in your Lordships’ House that there is scope for a debate…

Lords Proceedings 15 May 2025

Immigration System

My Lords, yesterday the Joint Committee on Human Rights began its legislative scrutiny of the borders Bill. Among the issues raised is, inevitably, Article 8, which the noble Lord has referred to. Given that this is not about directives from the European court but about differences of opinion betwee…

Lords Debate 30 April 2025 3 contributions

Great British Energy Bill

My Lords, I support the government amendment that has been negotiated and agreed with the noble Lord, Lord Alton. The Liberal Democrats very much welcome the step by the Government to ban solar panels linked to Chinese slave labour from Great British Energy’s supply chains. It is a decision born of …

My Lords, we welcome the Government’s decision to listen to the constructive challenge from this House and improve the Bill by ensuring that Great British Energy supply chains are not associated with modern slavery in China. I give my thanks and gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool. …

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