Rule of Law

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Laing of Elderslie (Con) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is with some trepidation that I rise to speak for the first time in this magnificent Chamber. How fortunate we are to spend so many of our working hours surrounded by such historical splendour.

I begin by thanking a great many people. First and foremost, I am eternally grateful to the residents of the Epping Forest constituency who returned me as their Member of Parliament at seven general elections. It was an enormous privilege to be their representative and, although I no longer represent them, I hope I can still speak up for them and the things they care about. Epping Forest is a hidden gem—not far from London, but far enough—and I am so very fortunate to live there among so many friends.

I thank sincerely the Clerk of the Parliaments, Black Rod and the wonderful doorkeepers for their guidance in recent weeks. I worked with them all for many years in my previous existence. The Clerk, Black Rod and I have dealt with some tricky issues together and I have always held them, and their colleagues, in the highest regard.

I am also extremely fortunate in my official supporters and other mentors. My noble friends Lord Forsyth of Drumlean and Lord Gardiner of Kimble were very kind, courteous and extraordinarily patient in the way in which they introduced me to your Lordships’ House. My noble friend Lord Forsyth was one of my first political heroes when he was stirring up trouble—there is a surprise—in the Scottish Conservative Party while I was a young candidate during the 1987 general election campaign. He remains my political hero, of course, and I note that he is still stirring up trouble.

My noble friend Lord Gardiner of Kimble was my opposite number as Senior Deputy Speaker for many years. We have fought many battles together, and I have always valued and relied upon his wisdom, experience and courtesy.

My noble friend Lady Stowell of Beeston has been a brilliant mentor to me over these last few weeks. She is of course full of knowledge and experience as a former Leader of your Lordships’ House, but she is also brilliant at answering the trivial questions that it seems too silly to ask. There is much to learn here and—for me, with the customs and procedures of the House of Commons running through my very veins—much to unlearn.

I crave your Lordships’ indulgence to allow me to thank two other mentors. The first time I ever set foot in the Palace of Westminster, I had just graduated from the law school at Edinburgh University. In those days many people just laughed at a young woman who wanted to be taken seriously in politics, but the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South did not. He encouraged me and invited me here to Parliament. He was then Michael Ancram, more recently known to your Lordships, until his untimely death just a few weeks ago, as the Marquess of Lothian. It is heartbreaking that Michael is no longer with us. I am sure that noble Lords all share my sadness and my enormous admiration for such a lovely man.

I also thank Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market, who, although he has retired from your Lordships’ House, continues to observe noble Lords’ proceedings from his home in Norfolk. Lord MacGregor, to whom I was special adviser for the many years during which he served in the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, is a highly principled politician who elevates argument with decency and kindness. I am extremely fortunate to have been taught so much by him.

Lord MacGregor was also a distinguished member of the Magic Circle, and while training me in politics he also trained me as a magician’s assistant. On one momentous occasion, on the big stage over in St John’s Smith Square, we set up a guillotine and cut off Jim Naughtie’s head. It is for your Lordships to decide whether putting Jim’s head back on was an appropriate, or indeed wise, course of action.

I congratulate the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Smith of Cluny, on introducing this important debate and on her maiden speech. Many of us remember with affection her esteemed father, who was held in great respect on both sides of the political divide. His legacy clearly flourishes in the noble and learned Baroness, but I commend her determination to forge her own way—and I commend her decision to operate mainly from Edinburgh. We are one country.

When I made my maiden speech in the other place 27 years ago, I quoted Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Finn, which said that, as Finn stood up in the House of Commons for the first time:

“All was confused, and there arose as it were a sound of waters in his ears, and a feeling as of a great hell around him”.


How very different is your Lordships’ House. Having spent almost 11 years trying to keep order in the other Chamber along with my partner in crime, the noble Baroness, Lady Winterton of Doncaster, I am most impressed by your Lordships’ ability to self-regulate—extremely surprised, but most impressed.

I am grateful also to the Garter King of Arms and the Lord Lyon King of Arms for permitting me to take the title Laing of Elderslie. Elderslie is the village, about 12 miles from Glasgow, in which I was born and brought up. It is the place where my grandfather set up a small business in 1910, and it is the village that my father represented on the district council for 25 years, and of which he was immensely proud.

Rather more notably, Elderslie was the birthplace of Sir William Wallace, the Scottish patriot who led the fight against oppression in the 13th century. Make no mistake: William Wallace was not fighting for any kind of modern-day nationalism. He was fighting for the basic liberty of the people he led. He was fighting for freedom, and surely we are all warriors in the cause of freedom. Wallace was defeated in battle, subjected to a show trial here in Westminster Hall and brutally executed. In 1305 there was no open justice, no protection for the weak from the strong, no rule of law.

I fully appreciate that a maiden speech should be uncontroversial. I thought the subject of today’s debate would provide that opportunity, as we must all surely agree on the importance of the rule of law, but everything is relative and nothing is absolute. It is a privilege to listen today to the wise arguments of noble and learned Lords, but I dare to question whether our current governmental processes are fulfilling their constitutional role in an adequate way. Are the legislature, the Executive and the judiciary really correctly balanced? There must of course be the potential for judicial review of administrative action but, as things stand now, the fear of judicial review is in practice hindering the proper implementation of policy. That may largely be due to an inappropriate risk-aversion culture among Ministers—and I mean Ministers of all parties, as the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, just alluded to.

For the rule of law to operate effectively, those who make the law must have confidence that their intent will not be diverted or diluted by other parts of our constitutional apparatus. The way in which we make laws is as important as the laws themselves, and what a challenge that is for your Lordships’ House. What a heavy responsibility for the revising Chamber.

I am in danger of straying into contentious territory, so I must conclude. I reiterate my praise for the noble and learned Baroness’s introduction of this important debate, along with my thanks to the many wonderful people who have given me so much personal and professional support in my journey to your Lordships’ House.