Jo Cox Civility Commission

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Thursday 18th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to speak in this debate and to remember the amazing Jo Cox, whom I met when she was chair of Labour Women’s Network and I was starting my political journey spending a weekend together in Bristol on a Labour Women’s Network training course. She shone brightly, and we heard many testimonies last Thursday in the other place about how being in Jo’s presence changed people for the better and how she drew people together, creating connection.

In my maiden speech, I spoke about my preoccupation with how we live well together, and five months on I am more preoccupied than ever. The three interconnected priorities of the Jo Cox Foundation, set up in her memory, are, sadly, unrelentingly relevant to us today: addressing loneliness; civility in public life; and grass-roots community work bringing all kinds of people together. There is a need urgently and comprehensively to address and think through on-the-ground solutions as well as legislative policy levers that create spaces and places—physical and otherwise—that enable everyone in society to thrive. There are some brilliant suggestions in the civility commission recommendations, some of which have been adopted, and we have heard about the excellent work today of the youth sector from my noble friend Lady Morgan.

This desire is born not out of utopian idealism but, as my noble friend Lady Dacres pointed out, out of living and working in diverse settings. My experience in Islington taught me similarly: from community centres to the council chamber, it is possible to build community, to build empathy, to increase understanding and to seek the common good. Connection with other human beings is essential to this; listening is essential; being open to learning is also essential. Kae Tempest says this better than I can in the song “People’s Faces”:

“But it’s hard to accept that we’re all one and the same flesh

Given the rampant divisions between oppressor and oppressed

But we are, though

More empathy, less greed, more respect”.

The last several decades have seen our social fabric stretched thin and to breaking point. In an often atomised and individualistic world, there is an urgent need to renew communal life, to renew solidarity, to commit to being together in spaces with people who do not look or sound like us and to challenge ourselves to listen well and ask questions.

Human beings are amazing. We are constantly evolving, continually being made and remade, and every day becoming and emerging. No one is fixed in their identity. No one is complete. Because of that ongoing evolution, there is always hope, and there is always the possibility of change and of shift. I have seen that in my work in prisons, in my work with people in addiction, and in my own life day by day. Sometimes it is little by little, and sometimes it is all at once in this giant wave. People can and do change; communities can and do change, through connection with other humans, a sense of belonging and doing something to meet the need of another.

The great, late Archbishop Desmond Tutu knew a thing or two about helping people to live together well, and his whole work was grounded in the concept of Ubuntu: “I am because we are”. My humanity is caught up and inextricably bound up in others, and because my humanity is bound up with others in this nation, I cannot ignore the pain and rage spilling out in Belfast and Southampton. Neither can I ignore the fear and terror expressed by my friends who are people of colour about going about their daily lives. Moreover, I cannot ignore the survivors of trafficking, whom I met last week with the Sophie Hayes Foundation, telling me about the failings of so-called safe houses and the failings of the national referral mechanism. My humanity is caught up and inextricably bound up in others.

On connection and listening, I do not know what that looks like in every community up and down our great nation. I know that, in my community, it looked like the Arsenal parade. It looks like an interfaith meal or the community homework club. We have a responsibility, as others have pointed out in this House today, to foster community; to foster connection, to share a meal and to be careful how we speak.

The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas took the “face of the other” as his foundational ethical concept: encountering another precious and totally unique human being face to face. We need human connection, seeking to understand and, as legislators, a commitment to listen, learn and collaborate with communities to find answers so we can live together well. I am not afraid of hard work, so let us go, with rolled-up sleeves, sharp minds and soft hearts. The common good must be sought, because we have far more in common than that which divides us.