Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

Debate between Baroness Smith of Newnham and Lord Triesman

Committee stage
Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Triesman (Lab)]

To be very clear, I have no difficulty at all with the concept that people in student unions who impede the free speech and academic freedom of others must be dealt with. For the record, I do not have a second’s question about that. I just want us to do things in this Bill that we can actually do. I wonder whether the noble Earl, Lord Howe, might discuss this offline with some of us who have helped to run these kinds of institutions in the past to see whether there is a practical solution to the problem that my noble friend has just illustrated. I do not know about the LSE, but I will lay odds that most student unions find out what their rugby clubs have done months after the event, if they find out at all.

[Baroness Smith of Newnham (LD)]

They might find out in the newspapers.