King’s Speech

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Waldegrave, and his sweeping look at history and the constitution.

The gracious Speech has a lot of legislation contained therein, but there are two omissions which I want to mention in passing. The first is a very welcome omission: the decision not to proceed with the Diego Garcia Bill, which, of course, was an affront to the rights of the BIOT community. The second omission is a missed opportunity, on welfare reform, and no doubt we will come back to that matter.

In the short time available to me, I want to highlight just two issues—the first is around extremism. The Minister will be pleased to hear that I met with Jonathan Hall KC just last week, who is carrying out a review of Section 1 of the Terrorism Act and its effectiveness in dealing with the glorification of terrorism. I look forward to continuing the dialogue with Mr Hall about his review and hope that he can make impactful recommendations to His Majesty’s Government.

For me, there is a gap in the legislation which allows the praising of terrorism. The impact of that goes beyond direct incitement—it is about the erosion of democratic resilience and social cohesion as well. I believe we need to send a clear message from Parliament to confront and reject extremism in all its forms, by making the glorification of terrorism something which is not normalised but rather seen as the radicalisation tool that it is.

Secondly, as this debate covers the union, I want briefly to reflect on the recent election results across the nation, with the sometimes inaccurate commentary that has followed. First, I certainly do not think the results should be ignored or glossed over by those of us who care deeply about the union, but they should also not be misrepresented. In Wales, Plaid Cymru has broken through in a remarkable way and become the largest party, with 35.4% of the vote. But with respect to Plaid’s victory, that figure is nowhere near a majority for breaking up the union in Wales, especially when one looks at the turnout, which was only 51.6%—meaning that nearly half the Welsh electorate stayed at home.

In Scotland, the SNP captured 38.2% of the vote in the constituency ballot, which is down 9.2% from 2021. When combined with the pro-independence Greens, the vote share for pro-independence parties totals only 41.15%, which is the second-lowest vote share for pro-independence parties since 2007.

There were more seats won, however, with fewer votes, because of the fragmentation of the pro-union vote. This, unfortunately, is something with which we are very familiar in Northern Ireland. In 2022, the Sinn Féin vote was just 29%, and when combined with the SDLP, it reached 38%. So, there is still clearly a pro-union majority, not just in Northern Ireland but in Scotland and Wales as well. I want to point out to noble Lords that the Sinn Féin First Minister of Northern Ireland is a joint First Minister with the unionist deputy First Minister. The First Minister cannot take any decision without the agreement of the deputy First Minister, and the hyperbole about the three devolved First Ministers being separatists is not correct. Northern Ireland is led jointly by two Ministers in the Executive Office, with equal powers and equal say. That is the price of power-sharing. Many have conveniently forgotten or chosen to ignore that fact, and it is very important that it be noted here today.

Finally, for the First Minister of Scotland to cosy up to Sinn Féin and tell us to move on, I say this: it is difficult to move on from Sinn Féin’s dark past when it refuses to move on from its dark past and continues to glorify the violence of the IRA. As Elie Wiesel said:

“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time”.