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Shaista Gohir – Maiden Speech in the House of Lords (Baroness Gohir)

The maiden speech made by Shaista Gohir, Baroness Gohir, in the House of Lords on 10 October 2022.

My Lords, it is a huge honour and privilege to be among you. I thank noble Lords for their warm welcome across the Benches, whether they have found me wandering the corridors or sat next to them, and for the warm welcome that I have received today. I want to particularly thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, and the many members of staff who have supported me in so many different ways. I also appreciate the words of wisdom and advice that have been offered to me so far. I am listening and I am learning: thank you.

Let me introduce myself to noble Lords who do not know me. I am the CEO and one of the founding members of Muslim Women’s Network UK, a national charity based in Birmingham. We operate a national helpline and counselling service, conduct research—most recently on maternity experiences—and conduct awareness-raising campaigns. We also have a national membership. The late Baroness Afshar was also one of our founding members. I was really excited to tell her that I was going to be following in her footsteps and joining her on the Cross Benches, but I did not get to share my good news with her because, just a few days before the public announcement of my appointment, she sadly passed away. However, I will be continuing her fight for gender justice and women’s equality.

As a women’s rights campaigner, I also work with many women’s organisations on many different issues. So I will be concentrating on women’s lived experiences, whether of the criminal justice system, the education system or the health service, or in employment. I will also be focusing on the economic impact on women of laws and policies. I will do all that I can to advance the rights of all women and girls and advocate for a fairer society.

However, society will be fairer only if more money goes into the pockets of women, because money is power—the power to increase life chances. However, over the last decade or so we have consistently seen more money, and hence more power, go into the pockets of predominantly wealthy men. In real terms, money has been taken out of the pockets of the poor, especially women. According to analysis by the Women’s Budget Group, the spending cuts on public services and freezes to social security over the last 10 years or so have hit women the hardest because they are most likely to use public services, work in the public sector and depend on social security for a bigger portion of their income.

Public spending may have gone up briefly during the pandemic, but a return to the pattern of cutting public spending while cutting taxes will continue to benefit men because women earn less and are more likely to work part time. Research by the Women’s Budget Group along with the Runnymede Trust shows that cutting spending and taxes at the same time hits women in every income group harder than men, hits the poorest hardest and hits minority-ethnic women, disabled women and lone parents hardest of all. That means women will struggle to pay for food, energy bills, rent and mortgages. Children will go to school and to bed hungry and they will be cold. Because children cannot keep warm, they will get sick. Families will become homeless.

If that situation is not bad enough, part-time workers have been told that if they do not increase their hours, their benefits will be cut. But many women work part time because they have caring responsibilities. They are looking after children, the sick, the disabled and the elderly. Women are not sitting idly by; they are working, but it is unpaid work that is not valued.

If we want to see a fairer society, Budgets must reduce inequalities and not exacerbate them. I look forward to seeing one day—I hope not too far in the future—an intersectional and feminist approach to the Budget. The empowerment of women will be crucial if Britain is to recover from the current economic challenges. I will therefore be returning to these issues again and again. I know there are many allies in the House, and I look forward to working with noble Lords across the Benches on many different issues, including the ones that I have mentioned today.

12/10/2022
Jane Hutt – 2022 Statement on Funding for Warm Hubs in Wales

The statement made by Jane Hutt, the Welsh Minister for Social Justice, on 12 October 2022.

On 20th September we announced an initial £1m of funding to support Warm Hubs. Today I am announcing how that funding will be distributed and what it will be used for.

With domestic fuel prices increasing, it is expected many people will struggle to keep their homes at a healthy temperature this winter, particularly those people at home all day, the elderly and the vulnerable. Many organisations including local authorities, community councils, faith groups, sports clubs, community centres are already setting up, or looking to set up, Warm Hubs within local communities. Warm Hubs are intended as places in local communities where people can find a safe, accessible and warm environment during the day to help reduce the cost of heating their own homes and to help those facing extreme fuel poverty this winter.

Early discussions with stakeholders have indicated That Warm Hubs should be an inviting place to spend time. They should be open and inclusive and take into account local and cultural needs.

Warm Hubs might offer:

Refreshments and snacks (as a minimum) but may extend to a more substantive meal where relevant or possible.
Advice and support services to those who attend, this can be for example advice and support on financial matters, health and well-being or digital accessibility.
Activities such as exercise, or arts and cultural activity (subject to location and availability).
Much of the expertise on where Warm Hubs should be placed, and what should be provided within Warm Hubs, rests within local communities. Local authorities working in partnership with the public sector, voluntary sector and community partners will be best placed to gauge and understand local needs, existing provision and to design and deliver local solutions.

Funding for Warm Hubs will therefore be distributed via local authorities in Wales. Funding will be distributed in line with local authority agreed existing formula. As part of the funding local authorities will be required to engage with their local partners, including County Voluntary Councils (CVC’s), in the development of Warm Hubs and in the provision / distribution of funding at a local community level to local community groups wishing to operate / establish a Warm Hub.

It is important that the approach to the delivery of Warm Hubs is joined up and meets local needs. In the same way that it is expected local authorities will work with local stakeholders, it is expected that any organisation wishing to put Warm Hub provision in place will contact their local authority or their local CVC to ensure they are delivering as part of the overall area approach and not duplicating local provision. It may be more appropriate in some places for organisations and volunteers to work with existing Warm Hubs rather than establish additional ones.

For more information on the local arrangements for Warm Hubs and local funding, I would encourage people to contact their local authority to register their interest.

12/10/2022
PRESS RELEASE : The undeniable link between climate, nature, peace and security in Africa [October 2022]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 12 October 2022.

Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the Security Council meeting on climate and security.

Thank you Mr. President, and let me thank all our briefers for their presentations today.

The United Kingdom sees an undeniable link between climate, nature, peace and security in Africa – and around the world. We were the first to bring climate security to this Council in 2007, and we hosted the first leader level debate in 2019. So we welcome continued African leadership on this issue under Gabon’s presidency, and we regret that Niger and Ireland’s resolution last December was blocked by a single veto.

As the Secretary-General has advised this Council many times before, the impacts of climate change multiply the threats faced by vulnerable populations.

We are seeing this play out in the drought in East Africa, and changes in rainfall across the Sahel. Climate change is exacerbating pre-existing drivers of insecurity, pushing these regions into humanitarian crisis, and increased competition for water and land, biodiversity loss, and migration are risking conflict, food insecurity – and lives.

The Security Council can help ensure the UN system has the mandates and capacities to integrate climate into its analysis and response to the drivers of conflict and fragility.

President, the UK is clear that we must accelerate climate action, deliver the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed last year, and meet financing commitments to build resilience. We are working to achieve this in a number of ways:

The United Kingdom made 10 commitments to Africa at COP26 – and has started delivering on these.

In January, we announced $23 million to support 1 million people in drought and flood-affected areas in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan.

Under the ‘African Union Green Recovery Action Plan’, the UK has funded experts in the AU Commission and enhanced capacity to implement climate action plans across the continent.

The UK has committed £100 million to the ‘Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance’, part of which established a new Climate Finance Unit in Uganda’s Ministry of Finance.

And we have committed to doubling our International Climate Finance to at least £11.6 billion up to 2026, balanced between mitigation and adaptation.

We are also taking responsibility for our country’s impact on climate change, as the first major economy to commit to reducing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Mr. President, collectively, we cannot allow any roll back from the commitments made in the Paris Agreement or the Glasgow Pact.

Instead, we should redouble our efforts to progress these agreements into action, at COP27 next month and the CBD COP15 in November. Our commitment to climate action is the basis for a peaceful and secure world.

12/10/2022
PRESS RELEASE : Brexit and Human Rights report to be debated at PACE – Senator Paul Gavan [October 2022]

The press release issued by Sinn Fein on 12 October 2022.

A key report, initiated by Sinn Féin Senator Paul Gavan, on the impact of Brexit on human rights in Ireland will be debated and voted on tomorrow at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which is Europe’s Human Rights body.

Senator Gavan is a member of the Irish Parliamentary delegation to PACE.

Ahead of the debate tomorrow, Senator Gavan said:

“The Political Affairs Committee of PACE appointed a Greek MP George Katrougalos as rapporteur and after many months of work and research, he makes a number of highly significant recommendations with regard to the Protocol, the so called Troubles (Legacy) Bill, and other related issues.

“Despite a late attempt by some British members of PACE to have the debate postponed, it will go ahead tomorrow afternoon.

“Amongst the key recommendations contained within the report is a call for the British Government to ensure that their withdrawal from the European Union does not result in any diminution of rights for people in the North of Ireland.

“Recommendations from the rapporteur also calls for the smooth and efficient implementation of the Protocol, and a call to refrain from ‘unilateral actions which undermine international law’.

“The rapporteur also calls on the British Government to propose a way forward to address the legacy of the conflict in the North that is in line with the European Convention of Human Rights standards on effective investigations and the Good Friday Agreement. In other words, a firm rejection of the British Government’s so called Legacy Bill which would provide a blanket amnesty.

“The report also notes with regret that more than 15 years on from the St Andrews Agreement, no legislation on the Irish language has been passed. Finally the report calls on all political parties in the North ‘to return to power sharing immediately’.

“The report will be debated and voted on tomorrow afternoon. I will speak on behalf of the United European Left Group and will make a clear call on all Assembly members to back this timely and powerful report.”

12/10/2022
Colm Gildernew – 2022 Comments on Adult and Social Care Services

The comments made by Colm Gildernew, the Sinn Fein MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, on 12 October 2022.

The Adult and Social Care sector is provided by community organisations who support vulnerable people to live independently.

We have heard that the services they provide are under huge pressure and on the brink of collapse.

The negative impact of this failure is being felt by patients and their families who are not getting the respite they need.

It is shameful for the DUP to sit on their hands while people are being forced to remain in hospital beds, which are sorely needed.

Many health and social care workers are facing burnout as they struggle to support a health service which is already on its knees.

They need immediate support.

The DUP should respect the democratic outcome of the Assembly election and work with others to help fix the health service.

Sinn Féin is ready to form an Executive today to invest an extra £1 billion in the health service over a three-year budget, to tackle waiting lists, recruit more doctors and nurses and support and support mental health and cancer services.

12/10/2022
PRESS RELEASE : Dillon writes to Lady Chief Justice about remarks in Tyrone sexual assault case [October 2022]

The press release issued by Sinn Fein on 12 October 2022.

Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon has made a formal complaint to the Lady Chief Justice, following remarks made by a Judge during a sexual assault hearing.

The Mid-Ulster MLA said:

“I have made a formal complaint to the Lady Chief Justice, following remarks made by a judge during a sexual assault hearing.

“The comments, encouraging the defendant to go out and “find a wife or partner and get a family and a home together” and the refusal to ban him from contacting women online are simply astonishing.

“Especially when the defendant has so many previous offences, and there has been an acknowledgement of a recent escalation in his offending.

“Rehabilitation is an important aspect of the criminal justice system, however, it is vital that the judiciary are trained to be aware of the many layers of men’s violence against women and girls.

“The criminal justice system must play their part in eradicating harmful myths and attitudes about domestic abuse and sexual assault.”

12/10/2022
PRESS RELEASE : British Embassy move to Jerusalem would “validate Israeli violation of Palestinian human rights” – John Brady TD [October 2022]

The press release issued by Sinn Fein on 12 October 2022.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, John Brady TD, has condemned comments from British Prime Minister Liz Truss, that her government is prepared to consider moving its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Wicklow TD said:

“Indications that the government of British Prime Minister Liz Truss is prepared to consider the transfer of the British Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem is reckless and deeply concerning.

“East Jerusalem is illegally occupied by Israeli forces. There is a continuing illegal campaign of annexation being undertaken against the Palestinian people.

“The United Nations have described the policies of the Israeli government towards the Palestinian people as being akin to apartheid.

“That this means nothing to the British government is disturbing. The attitude of the British government to international law has previously been made clear through its approach to the Irish Protocol.

“Trump’s actions declaring Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, and to begin the process of transferring the US Embassy to Jerusalem led to an increase in violence and was damaging to prospects of a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

“I would urge the British Prime Minister to give careful consideration to the British decision.

“A decision by the British government to transfer the British Embassy to Jerusalem, would be illegal, inflammatory, and fly in the face of international convention, and would represent a validation of Israel’s daily violation of the rights of the Palestinian people.”

12/10/2022
Sharon Bowles – 2022 Speech on the Growth Plan (Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted)

The speech made by Sharon Bowles, Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted, in the House of Lords on 12 October 2022.

My Lords, the Government have U-turned on some of their insensitive Reaganomics, giving tax cuts and perks to the wealthy during a cost of living crisis for the wider population, but a harsh right-wing agenda is an integral part of the Tory Brexit plan. It may not have headlined beyond the Singapore-on-Thames misnomer—thought just to mean light-touch financial regulation—but disruption and asset price adjustment are part of it, as the Prime Minister has revealed in various things that have been said.

Those kinds of adjustments are painful and require a long policy horizon, broad and deep support and good communication, as do any challenges to market orthodoxy. But done naively, two years before an election, with none of the accompanying platform—no wonder the markets took flight. The mini-Budget and growth plan set in train faster and further falls in sterling and gilt prices, and rises in interest and mortgage rates, than would otherwise have happened.

The gilt glitch triggered Bank of England intervention to save defined benefit pension funds that had tried to manage mark-to-market gilt valuations with derivatives and borrowing, collateralised by the gilts themselves: an incestuous systemic linkage, which sounds crazy anyway, inherently vulnerable to a doom loop, created and perpetrated by and around regulated entities, warned about to the Bank of England, and deemed acceptable or untouchable by regulators.

This was a systemic accident waiting to happen. Dodgy derivatives, shifting risk horizons, timelines and effective ownership change—has nothing been learned from 2007? The issue that has driven the invention of liability-driven investments and the recent gilt-sale doom loop is the mark-to-market requirement of accounting standards and applying it to hold-to-maturity gilts within pension fund assets. It has caused 20 years of instability in the pensions sector.

Gilts held to maturity are not volatile; the coupon and end return are either fixed or linked to inflation. As Terry Smith pointed out in his opinion piece in the FT last week, LDIs are not hedging risk—which is the total realised end return—but attempting to hedge the accounting valuation with all its short-term noise and volatility. The only gainers are the peddlers of exotic products; the losers are the public and pensioners who foot the cost of the rescue and the finagling.

Why is this done? Because of universal mark-to-market accounting standards dogma, also embedded in other regulation. Maybe it makes audit less work, requiring less judgment, but what good is that when the consequences and get-arounds open the door to extreme systemic events?

I know that the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, follows the infallibility of accounting standards mantra of BEIS—it is probably being scribbled down in the Box right now—but there are dangerous flaws and absurdities, and it is negligent if government, BEIS, the Treasury, regulators and the Bank will not get their heads around issues in accounting standards. It is no defence to say that accounting standards are independent; they are a closed shop defended by their acolytes. We are not all bamboozled, but those with power must take off their blinkers.

12/10/2022
Roger Liddle – 2022 Speech on the Growth Plan (Baron Liddle)

The speech made by Roger Liddle, Baron Liddle, in the House of Lords on 11 October 2022.

I join the noble Lord, Lord Lamont, in welcoming the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, back to the ministerial Bench. There is much in the speech made by the noble Lord, Lord Lamont, with which I agree. We all want growth, and it is a realistic ambition to try to turn Britain back to the 2.5% growth figure that we enjoyed until the financial crisis. The question is how to do it in a way—I think this is an important point—where the whole of society benefits. The fact is that the growth we have seen since the financial crisis has not trickled down. People on median wages and below have not seen any increase in their standard of living. This is an important thing that future government policy has to address.

As for the details of the plan for growth, there are some things in it with which I agree, but it is limited in its vision. If the Government had paid attention to business, business would have put skills at the top of the list and said that what is needed is more apprenticeships and more people with higher technical qualifications. On pages 19 and 20, which talk about getting more people into work with the right skills, there is not a single mention of that agenda and what the Government are prepared to do about it.

On housing, there is the cut in stamp duty but no clarity on how planning law is to be changed. We know that Conservative MPs in the Commons hate this. There is no mention of any need for social housing.

On infrastructure, there is a sort of half-acknowledgement of guilt that it was the Conservative Back-Benchers, again, who stopped onshore wind—one of the most positive things we could have done to cut energy bills. Let us see whether the objections to onshore wind can now be overcome.

Things such as Northern Powerhouse Rail, which we have been talking about for a decade or more, are on the list of things that the Government might do, but what credibility is there that they will actually do them? Investment zones are an interesting idea, but I have read the academic evidence and it is not very positive on whether they produce results.

There is a point that I think is original. A lot of the Johnson levelling-up agenda was about how we reinvigorated our town centres. Lots of government money is being funnelled into that. These investment zones will be on brownfield sites outside town centres; this seems to be a fundamental contradiction. If I were to encourage investment in my home town of Carlisle, I would want to see it in the centre and on the fringes of the centre, not on some site outside.

The fundamental thing about this Government’s policy is that they have lost the reputation for macroeconomic stability that is fundamental to encouraging business to invest. It was the most irresponsible and reckless Budget since Barber’s in 1972. It caused turmoil in the markets, which threatened the future of people’s pensions. It will lead to spiralling mortgage costs. As the noble Lord, Lord Macpherson, pointed out, there are risks here of a contradiction with monetary policy.

On the fiscal plan that the Government are committed to coming up with, I do not believe the numbers can be made to add up by public spending cuts, which would be both counterproductive in their impact on growth and politically undeliverable. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Macpherson, that some of the announced tax cuts should be cancelled.

This is not a plan for growth. It is an economic disaster.

12/10/2022
Norman Lamont – 2022 Speech on the Growth Plan (Baron Lamont of Lerwick)

The speech made by Norman Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, in the House of Lords on 11 October 2022.

My Lords, it is a personal pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Burns, who always gave me very wise advice in the Treasury, just as he has to the House today. I also welcome my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe back to her position on the Front Bench. We have lost a doughty Back-Bencher but regained a formidable Minister.

I welcome many of the measures in the Government’s growth plan, particularly the radical deregulatory ones—IR35, the pensions cap and the planning reforms. Provided they can be delivered they are the sorts of measures that will make a real difference to our growth rate. I also welcome the energy price guarantee. It is a major intervention but, as the Minister said, one that, because of the death of the Queen, was not widely recognised and is still not widely known among the public. The package is very important not only for the relief it gives to hard-pressed consumers but economically, because of the 5% it knocks off the rate of inflation. This by itself could help to stave off a deep recession, as high energy prices can be both inflationary and deflationary.

However, it has to be recognised that the energy price guarantee is potentially a massive commitment and adds huge uncertainty to the borrowing figures. The Government’s support to consumers as a percentage of GDP, according to the Goethe Institut and Conservative Central Office, dwarfs that of other countries. It is, potentially, more than double that of Germany, which funded its package out of taxation. It was the hugeness of the money at stake, together with the absence of the OBR assessment of the cost of tax cuts, that produced the market reaction that it did. The Government also made something of a rod for their own back with some of the rhetoric that was carried forward from the leadership election about rejecting orthodoxy and the attacks on “bean counters” and people peddling “abacus economics”. I am sure it was not intended to, but it sounded very like a Conservative belief in the magic money tree. Since then, the Chancellor has emphasised that he believes in fiscal discipline and in a declining debt-to-GDP ratio.

Going for growth is a certainly laudable objective, but it has to be recognised that there can be a conflict between going for growth and getting inflation down. A stimulus to growth from unfunded tax cuts may mean that inflation stays higher for longer, and that could mean higher interest rates holding back growth. If fiscal and monetary policy point in opposite directions, the result is again likely to be higher interest rates and thus slower growth. So the stage is set for something of a battle between the Treasury and the Bank of England as the Government push for growth and the Bank raises interest rates to tame inflation.

This dilemma could of course be resolved if tax cuts always paid for themselves. That would be wonderful—we would never have to discuss taxation again—but as the noble Lord, Lord Burns, said, they do not always pay for themselves. It depends on whether the rates are set at confiscatory levels or, technically put, where precisely the rate is on the Laffer curve. Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts resulted in increased debt, a fact that he later acknowledged and regretted.

Fiscal responsibility is not the enemy of growth. It produces the stability that is essential for it. I welcome the fact that the Chancellor is drawing up a debt reduction plan and plans to bring forward the OBR assessment of that plan. It is very important that the plan set out is credible and does not consist of just easing the present fiscal rules or back-ending all the pain that is going to be necessary. If we do not face reality, reality is going to face us. Fortunately, the Chancellor has, I believe, the resolve and determination to face these challenges, and I wish him well.

12/10/2022