King’s Speech

Lord Hanson of Flint Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to be able to wind up this aspect of the gracious Speech and to listen to the contributions that have been made over the six or so hours that we have had of this discussion to date. I want to begin, if I may, by just paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, for his service, for his award of the Garter, for his statement that politics of decency should prevail, and for his work to date. If he can write a book for me now on how to respond to 75 contributions over a six-hour period, that would be really helpful as well.

I also pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Case, for his maiden speech. He was confident, he brings experience to this House and he made a strong defence of the union. He joins the long list of Permanent Secretaries from the Civil Service who are in this place, and he will bring undoubted experience to the Chamber.

In the same way, I pay tribute to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. She spoke very fluently on the key issues that she faced and brought criminal justice issues to the fore, including the issue of wrongful convictions. I say in response to her question that the review that she mentioned from Dame Vera Baird is independent and will report accordingly.

We have had a very good debate today. As well as those maiden and valedictory speeches, we have had some 70-plus contributions, which I will try and respond to in due course. This is important because the issues that we are discussing on security, policing, criminal justice, immigration and the union are essential to the lives of everyone in this country.

I say to the noble Lords, Lord Wolfson of Tredegar and Lord Dholakia, that we will do the things that we say we will do. We have a commitment to do them, whatever little political difficulties there are at the moment. This is a programme for government that the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice are committed to seeing through with the support of colleague Ministers.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower, that we have made significant progress over the last two years. Since taking office, the Government have made it a priority to restore neighbourhood policing. We have put 3,000 additional neighbourhood police officers in place as part of a potential 13,000 by the end of this Parliament. I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, welcomes those police officers on the ground. We have a policing guarantee to do exactly what the noble Lord, Lord Kirkham, mentioned in his contribution, which is to look at the issues that matter to people on the ground: anti-social behaviour, knife crime, homicide and theft, all of which are falling. Through the Crime and Policing Act 2026 we bolstered powers for anti-social behaviour, retail crime, as mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkham, knife crime, online stalking and exploitation.

On immigration and border security, this King’s Speech will build on our activity to date. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Green of Deddington, that net migration is down, asylum decisions are being made more speedily and more people with no right to be here are being removed. I welcome the support of the noble Lord, Lord Murray of Blidworth, but it is a pity he did not do those things when he was in office himself, when he had the chance to do so only 18 months ago. We have stopped 40,000 attempted channel crossings in partnership with the French. On national security, we have introduced Martyn’s law and youth diversion orders. We have ensured that we have put in place a range of important measures.

We have an ambitious delivery programme. Among the things that we have talked about today, the issue of antisemitism has been key, and I want to touch on that first. The noble Lords, Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, Lord Ranger and Lord Godson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Foster of Oxton, all quite rightly raised the challenges of antisemitism. The most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury made the welcome suggestion that we need to bring communities together to deal with that scourge. The noble Lords, Lord Morse and Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury, and my noble friend Lady Ramsey of Wall Heath and the noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Birmingham, suggested that we need a cross-party approach to tackle this issue. It is extremely important. The noble Baroness, Lady Foster, mentioned the Jonathan Fisher review, which was also mentioned by my noble friend Lord Cryer. It is important that we try to bring that into play. The noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, talked about the bans on recent marches; I think they were fair and reasonable, and we will debate that in due course.

The noble Lord, Lord Pickles, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Noakes and Lady Altmann, all raised the subjects of extremism and the scourge of antisemitism. I say to my noble friend Lady Berger that it is not acceptable that her children have to go through barriers to school, but we have put that resource in to help protect the community and we have done it in a fair and effective way. I say also to the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, that Muslim hate crime is equally important, and the Government will take a stand on those issues.

We are ambitious with this legislative agenda. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Morse, that we understand and want to look at the question of delivery. I start with national security, which will always be our first priority. In the gracious Speech there are two Bills that are extremely important in defending our national security. One of them is the fast-track response to equip the Home Secretary with powers to designate organisations engaged in threatening activity linked to a foreign power. The issue is to do with a range of bodies. Noble Lords have talked about the IRGC. We do not comment on proscription as yet, but the Bill will give the Home Secretary powers to tackle terrorist organisations under state regimes.

The noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, and my noble friend Lord Reid of Cardowan recognised that those state threats are changing. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, and my noble friends Lord Cryer and Lady Berger have supported and looked at the issue of those Bills. The noble Lords, Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury, Lord Walney, Lord Stevens of Birmingham and Lord Goodman of Wycombe, and the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin of Kennington, all raised the important issue of how we deal with those state threats. I say to all those noble Lords that the Macdonald review will be reporting very shortly, in May; the issue of charities is kept under continual review; and we will ensure that we have a national security strategy that we will revert to in due course. Those are important issues that we need to take place. I say to the House as a whole that the national security Bill, bolstering defences to counter the full range of threats waged against us, and the Bill on proscription are two important measures that will be brought before this House as soon as practicable to ensure that we put that national security footing on a stronger base.

The police reform Bill that has been mentioned will directly challenge policing in the modern world to look at how we can improve our response to the ever-evolving threats. The Home Secretary has laid out a significant programme of reform, based on the White Paper, to secure trust and confidence, to abolish PCCs, to strengthen local policing, to look at a national response and, as a number of noble Lords have mentioned, to make sure that independence remains vital. The noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, and my noble friend Lord Bach have welcomed the Bill.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, supported by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester and my noble friend Lady Martin, talked about the prevention of reoffending. That is extremely important and we need to look at how we can improve it. The noble Lord, Lord Foster of Bath, talked about ensuring that we have consultation on and consideration of these matters, and he is right. My noble friend Lady Hyde of Bemerton and the noble Lords, Lord Kirkham and Lord Paddick, welcomed in broad terms the direction of travel.

We had a discussion around the devolution of policing and how we can look at that from the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas. I say to them both that the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, is currently looking on behalf of the Government at how we can deal with those issues, and he will report back in the summer.

There has been significant discussion of the Courts and Tribunals Bill. We are not going to achieve consensus here today. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier, mentioned IPPs, and my noble friend Lady Taylor touched on that issue as well. The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, gave us a heads up on a future Private Member’s Bill. The noble Baronesses, Lady Hayter, Lady Berridge and Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, all expressed concerns about the Bill, while my noble friend Lady Mattinson supported the proposals.

The noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, mentioned that he is concerned about rape trials. I say to him that rape trials will still have a jury before them. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Bellamy, worries about the three-year plan that was in place. That is going to be produced, and I think my noble friend will write to him very shortly on these matters.

On justice and reoffending, we are in favour of strong community punishments, we are investing in probation, we have increased the number of sitting days and, through the Victims and Courts Act, we have invested £550 million over the next three years in victim services. They are important issues but, quite rightly, there are concerns that will be debated and we will reach some conclusions in due course.

Immigration has been central to the debate tonight. It is right that our borders are secure, our rules are enforced, there is fairness, and we take steps to remove people who have no right to be here. There are plans in the proposals to look at a new model for Article 8, which was mentioned by the noble Lords, Lord Blencathra and Lord Faulks. We will discuss in due course how we can make some tweaks to Article 8 of the ECHR, but we are not going to withdraw from the ECHR as the noble Lord, Lord Davies, wishes. [Interruption.] The noble Lord is not in government at the moment, so we will see.

The most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed concerns, which we will obviously look at and reflect on. But I am pleased that I have had support from my noble friends Lord Reid of Cardowan and Lord Watson of Invergowrie.

The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord McColl of Dulwich, raised issues relating to modern slavery. We will look at how we can examine Section 48 in due course.

Integration issues were raised by the noble Lord, Lord Empey. We understand the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and my noble friends Lord Bach, Lord Sahota and Lady Lister. I hope that I will be able to persuade colleagues during the passage of the Bill that it is the right course of action. That is what this Chamber is about. I understand those concerns and we will return to them in due course. I welcome, genuinely, the support of the noble Lord, Lord Murray of Blidworth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Cash, for those proposals. But we will have to revisit them, test them and have that discussion in due course, because we have to have order and control in the immigration system.

We also have the Hillsborough Bill, which I am particularly pleased to have before the House, as a supporter of Liverpool Football Club all my life, and because it is the right thing to do.

We will rebuild public confidence in the justice process and, through my colleagues in the Ministry of Justice, introduce that statutory duty of candour. The noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller raised some issues. I hope we can resolve them in an amicable way for all parties. I welcome the support of the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, the noble Baronesses, Lady Finlay of Llandaff and Lady O’Loan, my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti and, indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames, for the principle behind the Bill. The measures in the Bill will apply to all public authorities and services, including the intelligence services, but we have to work through the concerns and find some solutions to the issues that have been raised, and we will do in due course.

There has been a lot of discussion and debate on the union, on votes for 16 year-olds, on devolution, and on the issues in the gracious Speech as a whole regarding trust in politics. There are really important issues around the union. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, made a sterling defence of the union and the role of the Government, as did the noble Lord, Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, and the noble Baroness, Lady Foster.

The noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, raised some issues which I will get back to her on, because I want to look into them in more detail.

The point raised by the noble Lord, Lord, Wallace of Saltaire, on how the patchwork fits together is important.

I do not necessarily agree with the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, on the direction of travel on PR, but there are always issues that we can reflect on and look at.

My noble friend Lady Hayter raised the important question of donations and how we organise them. This was also touched on by the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Haslemere. We need to ensure that we take money out of our political system.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, tempted me to look at Brexit. I think I will leave that one for tonight, if I may, but we will obviously have some further discussions on that and how we get a working relationship with the European Union. That is being looked at in relation to a range of issues.

As part of that section of the debate, the noble Lords, Lord Carter of Haslemere and Lord Farmer, talked about votes at 16. They have made their points and I refer them, if I may—I hope this will find favour with the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, who I spoke about earlier—to Wales, where we have introduced votes at 16. A week last Thursday, people in Wales who are 16 voted. I am not even sure that they voted for my party, but we introduced this and they voted. There is a model to look at, and the concerns raised by the noble Lords, Lord Farmer and Lord Carter, can be examined in due course.

The noble Baroness, Lady Falkner of—of somewhere I cannot read my own writing on now—hit on the really important point of trust being key. Trust in politics is absolutely key, which is why I also want to refer to the Northern Ireland Bill, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, and the noble Lords, Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard and Lord Bew. The Government have had to look at this issue again and there is a carry-over Bill. The points raised today are extremely important. We will examine that again, but we have to try to reach a resolution on this issue with the Irish Government, the people of Northern Ireland and the parties here today. I hope that we can examine that in due course.

In essence, this King’s Speech is about reform. It is about continuing the work that we have done in government to make a difference on key issues. It is about reducing crime; it is about keeping our society secure from terrorism; it is about managing our borders effectively; it is about speeding up justice and supporting reoffending being reduced. It is also about ensuring that we give justice with candour and put that public trust in our society through the Hillsborough law. This is reform for a purpose. It is to ensure that we have better policing by supporting local policing and giving a better national focus. It is about providing security to keep us safe in an age of growing and diverse threats, as have been mentioned by a number of noble Lords. It is about strengthening our borders, improving efficiency and speeding up justice to restore the ability of courts to deal with cases and give justice to victims.

I suggest that as a second-term programme in government, this is a solid amount of work. We have to deliver on the gracious Speech, but I commend the elements in it on the Home Office, justice and the union to this House. I look forward to arguing, debating and, I hope, agreeing on a number of elements of the programme during the next Session of Parliament.

As ever, my door is open to discuss any concerns. I will read Hansard tomorrow in detail and if I have not covered questions and points that have been raised—because there have been an awful lot of points—I will return to those in writing. I hope that noble Lords can, at least tonight, welcome this King’s Speech and support the general objectives of the Government.

Debate adjourned until tomorrow.