Antisemitic Attacks

Baroness Shah Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

Antisemitism is not a perception. People have died in Manchester as a result of antisemitism. It is not a perception; it is something that we have to tackle. The leader of the Green Party and the Greens can speak for themselves. I speak for the Labour Party, the Government and, I hope, the whole House when I say that antisemitism has no place in our society, we have to root it out and those who apologise for it are not fit to hold public office.

[Baroness Shah (Lab)]

My Lords, I had the privilege of attending Kenton synagogue’s Friday night service last week. It happens to be my local synagogue, no more than two minutes from where I live. I heard huge concern among congregants not only about the recent attack at the synagogue but about their general feeling of insecurity as Jews, which is something that we urgently need to address. It is not acceptable that a community feels and is facing that fear.

The rabbi also spoke of the support and solidarity that they receive from the wider community. Can my noble friend the Minister give us more detail about how the Government, with other agencies, intend to promote positive interaction between communities as part of a long-term and sustainable future solution, so that the Jewish community is safe in this country?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend and I am also grateful for her work in supporting the Jewish community locally. It is vital that all of us in society, from whichever faith or none, support action against antisemitism and show solidarity with the Jewish community.

I refer my noble friend again to the social cohesion strategy that we have put in place. It looks at funding £800 million-worth of activity. Importantly, it has highlighted 40 key neighbourhoods where we need to work on social cohesion much more effectively and it is putting in resources to do that. I know that my noble friend will want to monitor the performance of that strategy, but I think it is a very good start. We continue to look at the challenges and will continue to learn lessons from how social cohesion operates at local level to look at how we can extend that to help support other communities where that social cohesion may not be as strong.

Retail and Hospitality Sector

Baroness Shah Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Shah (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is a great honour to rise for the first time here in your Lordships’ House, and I do so with a profound sense of humility. To sit among Members whose experience, wisdom and dedication to public service I have long admired is both a privilege and a responsibility I do not take lightly.

I begin by thanking the staff of this House—the clerks, Black Rod’s team and particularly the doorkeepers, whose professionalism, warmth, patience and, today, hydration have been extraordinary as I have found my way, mainly slowly, around its procedures and corridors. I am also deeply grateful to my two sponsors, my noble friends Lord Evans of Sealand and Lord Katz, for their generosity, encouragement and guidance. Their support has meant a great deal to me, and I thank them sincerely for welcoming me so warmly to your Lordships’ House. I would also like to thank my noble friends Lady Smith and Lord Kennedy of Southwark for helping me through this very surreal process.

It is a great honour to be the first Jain in Parliament, and swearing my Oath of Allegiance on Jain scripture was a moment of great significance for my community and family in London, Kenya, India and beyond.

My journey to this place has been shaped by family, by education and by public service. My grandmother and my mother both lived lives of unshakable commitment to their families, whose lives are marked by challenges and community expectations, but also by determination. They believed deeply in education, not as an abstract good but as a practical route to dignity, independence and opportunity. My father, a small business owner, worked hard to ensure that my brother and I could stand on firmer ground than he had himself.

I learned that progress is rarely sudden and never accidental. It is built patiently through work, service and a sense of responsibility to others. Those values have guided me through every stage of my life.

They also sustained me through profound personal loss. My husband Richard died in 2016 at the age of 36. Living with bipolar, he was a man of great kindness and creativity and an exceptional singer, whose life was cut short by cancer. His experience deepened my understanding of mental health, grief and the fragile line many people walk while still contributing richly to their families, workplaces and communities. Ten years ago, my life was very different. I was a back-bench councillor, a mum to a six year-old, a carer to my husband and a history teacher. Had life been different, I would probably be talking about being a head teacher rather than my elevation to this place.

I mention this not for sympathy but because it strengthened my conviction that public policy must be grounded in compassion, and that our systems, whether in health, housing or employment, must be designed for real lives, not idealised ones.

As I said earlier, my professional life began in education. Teaching is an act of hope. Every day, you stand before young people and make a quiet promise that their background need not determine their future. I taught students of extraordinary talent and ambition, many navigating overcrowded housing, economic insecurity and uncertainty about what lay ahead. They taught me that aspiration exists everywhere but opportunity does not.

It was those experiences that led me into local government, where I sought to turn principle into practice. As a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Brent, home of Wembley Stadium, I had the privilege of working in one of the most diverse and dynamic boroughs in the country.

I led work on regeneration and planning, and my work was driven by a simple belief that growth must be inclusive and development should strengthen communities. I encountered daily the reality of families living in temporary accommodation and young people being priced out of housing, often due to wage stagnation. These challenges demand long-term thinking and political courage, and I am proud of our work to deliver housing of all tenures and to play our part in tackling the housing crisis.

Alongside this, I led work in economic development, with a particular focus on supporting local businesses and high streets—the subject of this debate. High streets are not merely commercial spaces but social infrastructure. When they thrive, communities thrive. When they decline, the effects ripple far beyond empty shopfronts.

Working in partnership with the Mayor of London, I helped to deliver programmes to support small businesses in Wembley to get online, recognising that digital access is no longer optional but essential. I championed affordable workspace policies, ensuring that start-ups and growing businesses could access space they could genuinely afford and remain rooted in their communities, and supporting businesses to adapt and grow—the power of local, regional and national government working together.

I come to this House shaped by education, local government and lived experience. I do not claim expertise in all fields, but I hope to contribute particularly to debates on education, housing and regeneration—areas where long-term thinking is essential. I look forward to joining your Lordships’ House in scrutinising, revising and improving legislation. In that spirit, I bring with me the voices of the students I taught, the residents I served, the businesses I worked alongside and the families whose values brought me here.

I will endeavour to listen carefully, to speak thoughtfully and to serve with integrity.

I thank all noble Lords all for the warmth of their welcome, and I look forward to contributing to the vital work of this House.