Education (Values of British Citizenship) Bill [HL]

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 18th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, as other noble Lords have, I take this opportunity at the beginning of my remarks to pay tribute to the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth. I am delighted to see that his persistence and eloquence on this subject have been given another opportunity for expression today.

Mindful of time constraints, I will focus on two specific elements of the Bill. First, I fully support, as set out in Clause 1(1), the expansion of the list of values to encompass democracy, the rule of law, freedom, individual worth and respect for the environment.

Clause 1(2) may seem a cosmetic change, but I believe that it is both substantive and necessary. Replacing the phrase “British values” with “values of British citizenship” is a change for the better for a couple of reasons. First, it is simply more accurate. These values are not narrowly or uniquely British but, for the most part, Enlightenment values that find a culturally specific expression in this country.

I do not believe—and nor, I think, does any other Member of your Lordships’ House—that these values are inapplicable in France, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands and a host of other democratic nation states. A phrase that implies, or is even open to the interpretation, that they are the possession of Britain alone obviously stands in need of revision.

I support the retention of the word “British”, however, for one clear reason: the United Kingdom is not one country but a collection of four. Although education is a devolved matter and the provisions of the Bill would apply only to England and Wales, this is something with which we should engage as the Bill makes its way through Parliament.

The latest British Social Attitudes survey, published in June this year, reveals significant shifts in conceptions of citizenship in the UK as a whole and especially in the devolved nations. Across the UK there has been a shift towards regarding civic rather than ethnic conceptions of national identity as being of greater importance. That underscores the importance of the provisions of the Bill, with around half of people believing that being born in Britain is essential to being truly British, as opposed to 73% of the population in 2013. But when it comes to the devolved nations—perhaps unsurprisingly, I will focus on Scotland—there is a disinclination to see being “British” as a key marker of civic identity, even among those who support the union. While 45% of the English population see themselves as both English and British, well over half of Scots regard themselves as exclusively or primarily Scottish, while just a quarter see their Scots and British identities as coterminous.

It was disappointing, though wholly unsurprising, that the phrase “British Values” was listed under the heading “Problematic Language” in the Prevent guidance in Scotland. We know that, under previous Administrations, both in Scotland and in Westminster, there was increasing divergence in this area. The Bill, among other things, may bridge that gap. As and when it proceeds through your Lordships’ House, it may be worth considering this context if we are to ensure that these precepts of UK citizenship act as a means of binding our population more closely together rather than providing yet another excuse for ideological contestation.