Parcel Delivery Services

Lord Sarwar Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Lord Sarwar) (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, thank you first of all for the very kind comments. I am pleased to respond to this Question for Short Debate as part of my maiden speech. I thank the noble Lord for bringing forward this important debate. I also start with an apology that it will not get the full and detailed response it deserves, given that it is a maiden speech. But I make both a firm commitment to meet the noble Lord and the commitment he asked for to look at all the issues so that we give the people of this country the postal service they need and deserve.

With noble Lords’ permission, I want to share some reflections before responding directly to the issues raised. I cannot help but think about the journey that got me to this place and the many, many people who have supported me along the way. It feels pretty surreal standing to make my third career maiden speech in a third Chamber. My first was in the House of Commons 16 years ago, my second in the Scottish Parliament 10 years ago, and today in the House of Lords. At 43 years old, it feels like I am living my life in fast forward.

There is nothing I could have done in my life if it was not for the great people of Glasgow. It is a city that raised me, that shaped me, that taught me my values and gave me my passion for social justice. But it is also a city that taught me not to be afraid to do difficult things: as a teenager, campaigning to save the Govan shipyard; as a young adult, being an NHS dentist in the area with the poorest dental health record in western Europe; as a relatively new Member of Parliament, becoming the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party and helping lead the campaign for Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom; throughout my time in the Commons, campaigning for the recognition of a Palestinian state, a proud achievement of this Labour Government; and as shadow Health Secretary in Scotland, working with whistleblowers and grieving families to expose the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital scandal. I repeat a promise that I made to all those families: I may have moved to a different Chamber, but I will continue to stand with them until they get the truth and the justice they deserve.

In 2021, I had the honour of being elected to lead my party in Scotland with just 10 weeks to go before an election. Hollowed out, divided, skint—a Scottish term, for those who do not know it—and with just one MP, we were viewed as the drag on the UK Labour Party’s chances of winning an election. I will be for ever proud that three years later Scotland led the way in changing the Government and electing a UK Labour Government, going from one MP to 37 MPs.

There have no doubt been many achievements in the first two years of this Labour Government, but we must be honest that, for many, we did not live up to their early expectations, and they were keen to deliver that message in May. I remain heartsore at the outcome of the Scottish elections, not because of what it meant for me—you learn to develop a thick skin in the Scottish Labour Party—but because of what it means for my fellow Scots. Scotland needs a new Government and new politicians who are willing to confront the big challenges. It needs an NHS that is there when you need it, an education and skills system that guarantees opportunities for every young person, an economy that backs innovation and entrepreneurship and a politics that puts place before parties so that every part of our great country can flourish. To my colleagues and friends in the Scottish Labour Party, note that I will always be cheering you on and working for your success. To whoever my successor is, know that you will always have my unequivocal support in public and, as a former leader, my advice in private.

I have been fortunate to have so many political friends and supporters over the years—they are too many to name individually, but they know who they are and I thank them dearly. But every politician also knows that you can do nothing without your staff team. Over the years, I have been supported by so many hard-working, committed and incredible people, not least the brilliant Kate Watson. She, and they, will always be family.

Speaking of family, I could not do it without mine. I thank them for their love, patience and understanding and, most of all, for making sure that my feet are, and always will be, firmly on the ground. I hope that I have done you a little proud. I am certainly proud of each and every single one of you.

I am joined in the Gallery today by my mother and father, faces that I know are well known to many noble Lords, because, yes, I may have been the first person of Muslim heritage to lead a major political party in the UK, but I was certainly not its first Muslim MP. That achievement belongs to my father. Almost 30 years after his election as the Labour MP for Glasgow Govan, it is truly humbling for me to be standing here addressing what he would call the other place. I imagine that in some ways this will feel like a bit of a homecoming for him. Many noble Lords served with him and so have known me from a very young age, but let me reassure them that, while I have aged, they have not.

I look around the Chamber and see many who have supported, encouraged, advised, consoled and even, on rare occasions, rebuked me over the years. I am sure that will continue. I hope noble Lords will forgive me for remembering one person in particular, Baroness Meta Ramsey, who remains in our hearts today.

That brings me to the here and now and why I answered the call to serve. I played my part in helping the Labour Party succeed at the last general election, but our new Prime Minister must succeed, this Government must succeed and, most importantly of all, our country must succeed. I am determined to play my part in making that happen. As the late, great John Smith once said:

“The opportunity to serve … is all we ask”.


I could not turn that opportunity down.

But there is also, in my view, a bigger fight that cannot I walk away from and which I am determined to play my part in. That is the fight for the heart and soul of our nation. It is about who we are as a people and as a country. For me, that goes beyond the usual mainstream political divide. Who are we as a country? Do we continue to look out for and love our neighbour or do we treat them with suspicion? Are we a country that succumbs to the politics of division and hate or are we going to make sure that we have a country and a politics that believes in unity and hope? That is the generational challenge for all of us and one that I hope we overcome.

It is no secret that I have expressed public views on this place before. I, alongside a certain former Mayor of Greater Manchester, now the Prime Minister, advocated for reform of this institution. I reassure noble Lords that I did so questioning the principle, not the purpose or the people. I continue to support a more democratic and representative upper Chamber, a senate of the nations and regions.

I am deeply honoured to have been asked by the Prime Minister to serve as the UK’s Minister of State for Trade, with a clear mission and objective to make the UK the most connected economy in the world. That will be measured in maximising exports going out of the UK and investments coming into the UK and in making sure that good growth is felt in every postcode, every region and every nation.

In the closing moments, let me make sure that I also address some of the challenges raised in the Question. We have greater economic insecurity than perhaps ever before, and I think this country has to demonstrate trade and economic leadership. That means building more partnerships and embracing a more interconnected world rather than having over-protectionism in this country or, indeed, across the globe. We can see many of the challenges of the new economy in our postal delivery service. Our economy is changing, and habits are changing. We are now sending fewer letters than ever before, but we are sending and receiving more parcels than ever before, with 4.2 billion items sent in the last year alone. We have the rise of new online giants such as Amazon, eBay and AO, to name a few. That is putting more pressure on our SMEs and businesses, and how do they compete?

People have a lot more demands of what they expect from a quality service in postal deliveries. Yes, satisfaction is relatively high, but noble Lords are right to say that the consistency of that service and its handling of complaints is nowhere near good enough. The Minister in the other place has met Ofcom and businesses to make known to them that she is not content with that performance so far. I say again that I am happy to meet individually any noble Lord who has a care about this issue and I am happy to robustly challenge Ofcom and the businesses related to postal delivery services to make sure that they live up to people’s expectation.

In closing, it is an honour to be here. I thank the Whips for making sure I get to work here straightaway, and I look forward to working with all noble Lords to deliver for all the great people of this great country.