House of Lords Reform

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, it is always a pleasure and something of a challenge to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell.

I think we will all be conscious of the gap between the perception—often, alas, negative—of the House of Lords, focused on its size and the methods of its appointments, and the reality of an effective hard-working second Chamber which complements and challenges, but does not compete with, the House of Commons.

I think the Government are right to seek to close that gap but that will inevitably require change, and change is seldom easy. I agree with the Government that the time has come to complete the 1999 reforms and to remove the right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. I expect to vote for the Bill when it comes to us. However, I hope that a way can be found to enable at least some hereditary Peers, many of whom have played and are playing an important role in the work of the House, to be appointed life Peers.

I also welcome the Government’s aim to reduce the size of the House. I have always thought that the Lords could carry out its constitutional duties with, say, 450 Members, but the proposals in the Burns report of an upper limit of 600 now have a certain status. A reduction to that number would be achieved by the Government’s proposal for retirement at 80—but this is a blunt instrument. There should be proper consultation on other ways to achieve the same end, and I hope that those consultations can begin on an all-party basis soon and will include participation. I hope they succeed, so that a reduced and more focused House of Lords can come into effect quickly—ideally, after the next election. If they do not succeed, I imagine that the Government will push ahead with retirement at 80 anyway—in which case, I, along with many others, will trip lightly away from your Lordships’ House. But let us hope that we can together find another way forward.

The aim, of course, is not just to reduce the House of Lords to, say, 600, but to ensure that it stays at that size. In my view, that will require a reinforced House of Lords Appointments Commission, which I used to chair, with more powers and with the emphasis on the suitability, not just the propriety, of those nominated by the political parties. It will also require an effective self-denying ordinance on the part of the present Prime Minister and future Prime Ministers.

I have in the past voted in your Lordships’ House for an at least partially elected House. It did not find favour with your Lordships. I do not now believe that a wholly or partially elected Chamber would be acceptable to the Commons, so I understand but do not support the views of the Liberal Democrats.

In conclusion, the Government’s approach is on the right lines. We have waited long enough, and we now need to move forward—not in due course, or even at pace, but immediately.

Northern Ireland Protocol

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, as set out in the Statement, I say that the brake will come from the Assembly and, as with the petition, from 30 MLAs; however, it will have to come from more than one party, as in the current arrangements. Obviously, the intention of the framework is not to deny Northern Ireland access to the market in the rest of the island of Ireland. Indeed, for some industries, there is great dependency on trade across the border; that is inherent in the small part of the trade and co-operation agreement that I was discussing with the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull. We hope that openness to the Republic of Ireland in respect of the market and trade in it will be preserved in this agreement; however, the fundamental point is that the agreement also addresses our UK internal market and strips down unacceptable barriers to east-west trade, which have rightly caused concern and regret in Northern Ireland.

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, this is an ambitious and far-reaching agreement with a great deal of material that will need to be digested and carefully analysed; the Northern Ireland protocol committee, which I have the honour of chairing, will start on that shortly. Can the Minister assure us that, now that an agreement has been reached, the Foreign Secretary will give evidence to our committee and therefore help us in the inquiry that we are about to start? Secondly, on behalf of the committee, I wrote to the Foreign Secretary last Friday on the supply of medicines to Northern Ireland. I argued that the falsified medicines directive might be disapplied and, for example, that single packs of medicines should be available throughout the United Kingdom. Yesterday’s announcement suggests that this has all been agreed. Can the Minister confirm that? Does he agree that a letter sent on Friday and a positive reply received on Monday represent a remarkably quick turnaround, even by the high standards of your Lordships’ House?

[Lord True (Con)]

The noble Lord should not ask for too much; he cannot ask me to control the Foreign Secretary’s diary, but I will certainly let the Foreign Secretary know about the great interest of the noble Lord and his committee, whose work I very much value, in that matter, but I cannot commit to him in any way. Although I think it invidious to single out individuals I say that, in addition to my right honourable friend the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland have both played an enormously distinguished part in bringing about these arrangements. As we laid out in the Statement, we believe that we now have a situation where we will have a single medicines pack for the whole of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. To supply to Northern Ireland, business will need to secure approval for a UK-wide licence from only the UK’s MHRA and not the EMA as well.

Afghanistan

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Wednesday 18th August 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, all of us involved over the last 30 years in one way or another in policy towards Afghanistan will feel pretty gutted at the events of the last few days. Many of us have seen at first hand the courage and commitment of our soldiers, diplomats, aid workers and others and, of course, of the Afghan men and women with whom we worked. There will, of course, come a time to look at how we got to where we are now—and, indeed, the circumstances in which military intervention may be justified. In my view, today is not the day to do that. But I do hope that out of all this will come a foreign policy based more on cold realism and less on rhetoric.

I will make three points. First, we must, if at all possible, maintain an embassy in Kabul, provided, of course, that our people are safe. Without it, we lose influence and understanding—and neither of those can we afford. I hope that Laurie Bristow, for whom I have the highest admiration, can stay. Can the Minister give us any assurance on this, at least of the Government’s intention?

Secondly, we must offer and seek to deliver—not easy, I know—humanitarian aid. Thirdly, we must work with others—the EU, the US, China, Russia, Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s neighbours to try to ensure a stable Afghanistan that is not a breeding ground for terrorists. There is surely a common interest here and the UN will have a key role to play, as the noble Baroness mentioned in her opening speech.

No one knows what sort of Taliban regime will emerge from the present crisis, nor how coherent it will be. With others, we may be able to affect things; on our own we will not. It will be a hard slog and it will be unglamorous, but it may just make a difference, and we owe it to those who have given so much.

Global Britain

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Thursday 18th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I am glad that the Prime Minister paid tribute to the staff of DfID in his Statement; that was well deserved. Of course, foreign policy and aid, and FCO and DfID staff at home and abroad, need to be closely aligned, but a merger between the FCO and DfID is somewhere between a distraction and a mistake. Does the Leader of the House agree that Britain’s influence in the world is greatly enhanced by an aid programme focused on the world’s poorest countries and the poorest people within them? Will she confirm that the long-term focus of aid on those countries, and on the people who really need help, will continue?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I hope that my answer to the question of the noble Lord, Lord Newby, provided that reassurance. As I said, our commitment to helping the world’s poorest remains as strong as ever, and we believe that by merging these two departments, and using the fantastic expertise that the noble Lord, Lord Jay, rightly pointed out, we will enhance our ability to do that, not diminish it.

Syria

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Monday 16th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I certainly agree with my noble friend that, having looked at the assessment, the intelligence and the suffering of the Syrian people we felt that action was necessary. But let us be very clear: this was a co-ordinated and targeted strike to degrade the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability and to ensure that chemical weapons do not become normalised, which none of us wishes to see.

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Leader of the House for repeating the Statement. I spoke against intervention in Syria in 2013 because I thought it was ill thought-through and poorly presented. I support the intervention this time: I believe it is properly thought-through, limited, focused and well concerted with allies. It is clearly designed to deter the use of chemical weapons. It may well do so and such deterrence is clearly to be welcomed, but this action will have little or no effect on the longer-term conflict in Syria. Will she say more about the Government’s intention to work with others—including, however difficult, the Russians and Iran—to achieve some sort of settled solution in Syria? Only in that way will there be an end to the humanitarian disaster that we now see.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I am grateful for the noble Lord’s support for the action taken. I reiterate to the House that we remain committed to the UN-led political process, but we have to be aware that it is the Syrian regime, with Russian and Iranian support, that is choosing to continue the conflict rather than come to the negotiating table. However, we will continue to try and pursue diplomatic resolution. As I mentioned in the Statement, next week we will attend the second Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, which will focus on humanitarian support, bolstering the UN-led political process in Geneva and ensuring continued international support for refugees and host countries. We are committed to finding a diplomatic solution but I think we all acknowledge how difficult the circumstances are.

Syria: UK Military Action

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, during my diplomatic career, my normal posture vis-à-vis Foreign Secretaries was for me to say a few words and then bow my head lightly while I was given a detailed and well-judged critique of what I had said. I cannot imagine a more appropriate moment to reverse that than to have the privilege of congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Hague, on an expectedly brilliant maiden speech. The noble Lord is a very distinguished former Foreign Secretary, a very distinguished biographer—I cannot praise William Wilberforce too highly—and a brilliant orator. I cannot imagine a better conjugation of talents for your Lordships’ House than political experience, historical wisdom and oratorical genius. If the maiden speech that we have heard is a prelude of what is to come, we can only look forward with impatience, as the French would say, to further treats in store.

Having said that, I must rapidly regain my independence by recalling that I spoke against military action in Syria two years ago because it was not clear what the targets would be or what the objectives were. I spoke for military action against Daesh last year but argued that we should do so with our eyes wide open and recognised that when—and I believed that it was “when” and not “if”—the Government put forward proposals for action against Syria, we should have to accept that our allies would in some ways be unfortunate or unpleasant and include Iran, but more particularly that we would have to accept that action against ISIL—Daesh—must take precedence against action against Assad. We cannot have two conflicting objectives at the same time.

There is no doubt that Daesh continues to be a direct threat to the United Kingdom, as we saw in Tunisia and as others have seen only too clearly recently, notably in Paris, from which I returned this morning. There is in addition a clear and unanimous United Nations Security Council resolution authorising all necessary measures against Daesh and denying them a safe haven in Iraq and Syria. Furthermore, joining the United States, France and others by extending action against Daesh into Syria will add capability to that action and will strengthen our hand in pressing for effective diplomatic action to find a political settlement in Syria; for example, through the International Syria Support Group. Stepping up that search in parallel with military action is essential.

Equally, we have to be realistic about this. Getting those negotiations going, let alone completing them, is going to be fraught, complex and time-consuming and will not easily take place in parallel with the necessary military action. We cannot, as the noble Baroness said in introducing this debate, do no nothing while we wait for a long and drawn-out diplomatic process to continue; we have to try to do both at the same time. We have to take decisions on the basis of the judgments and evidence we have before us now.

I have nothing but respect for those who take a different view on the case for action against Syria and I see no advantage whatever in denigrating them, but I have no doubt, either, that extending military action against Daesh from Iraq into Syria is now the right thing to do.

Tunisia and European Council

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

I am grateful to my noble friend for his remarks about the Prime Minister’s approach and his tenacity on this issue. He asks when the talks are going to start. They have already started. Thursday signalled the start of the technical talks, and the efforts of the very senior government representatives who will lead on this are now under way. Prior to that the Prime Minister made a round of visits and had discussions with all other European leaders. Over the past couple of years, since he made it clear that this was something that he, as Prime Minister of this country, wanted to do, he has, in my view, been able to stimulate some enthusiasm and an agreement from other European leaders that reform of the European Union is in their interests as much as it is in the interests of all people in the United Kingdom.

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Davies of Stamford (Lab)]

My Lords—

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Taylor of Holbeach) (Con)]

My Lords, in order to satisfy the interest in this subject I propose that we extend the time for questions on the Statement for another 10 minutes.

[Lord Jay of Ewelme]

My Lords, I am very grateful for the Statement and I agree with every word that the Leader of the House said on Tunisia. As I know only too well, terrorist attacks of this sort are immensely difficult and traumatic for those who are caught up in them and for their families and friends. I congratulate the Government on the quick response of the Foreign Office and others to the attacks in Tunisia. I very much support what the Prime Minister and the Leader have said about greater funding for the police and the security services because I fear that we are inevitably going to see further attacks of this sort around the world. Will the noble Baroness confirm that there will also be sufficient funding for the Foreign Office, and particularly its consular services, because they, too, are going to be required to provide the services that people who are attacked and affected both deserve and need?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

I know that the noble Lord knows only too well, as a former Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, just what is involved in the reaction of the Foreign Office to such incidents, so I welcome his congratulation on the way the Government have handled this. As for funding, as he acknowledges, we do and we have ensured that not only has funding for the security services been maintained, it has increased in recent times. As for funding for consular services in the Foreign Office, our approach is always to make sure that there is adequate funding for any of our operational services to meet their needs.

Iraq

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Friday 26th September 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I strongly believe that we should join in the military intervention in Iraq but with our eyes wide open. The Iraqi Government have asked for our support, so intervention would be legal. We have excellent Armed Forces to provide that support. We would be joining a coalition with Iraq and, crucially, with others from the region. We know what our aim is: namely, to degrade and weaken ISIS so that properly trained Kurdish and Iraqi forces can regain control of those parts of northern Iraq now under ISIS control and thus remove the prospect of a vicious and maverick fundamentalist state in the Middle East threatening our and others’ interests. But it is in the achievement of those aims that the problems may lie. The only certain thing about war is that it never turns out as you expect. When the difficulties arise, the arguments for involvement in the first place can start to look, with the benefit of hindsight, distinctly shaky. Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya all show that.

Therefore, let us look beyond today. It is not clear that air strikes will be enough. Nor is it clear that the Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, even when trained, will be able to defeat ISIS on the ground, even an ISIS that has been weakened by air strikes. So our trainers may edge ever closer to a combat role, with all the risks to them and to opinion at home that that will bring. On the political level, I suspect that Iran will continue its shift from enemy to ally—an uncomfortable but, I suspect, necessary process that was inevitable from the day that a Sunni-led Government were replaced in Baghdad by a Shia-led Government.

Finally, the logic of not intervening in Syria, while in my view correct today, will look increasingly uncertain as it becomes clear that the Syria-Iraq border is no more than a line on a map. The question of the legality of an intervention in Syria, even if there is no UN Security Council resolution because, for example, of a Russian veto, will become paramount. I believe that it will not be an insoluble problem—Kosovo is a precedent—and I note what the Minister has said. None the less, it would be a difficult issue.

These are not questions that need or can be answered now. But if we agree to a military intervention in Iraq now, as I believe that we should, we should do so in full recognition of the probability, and I would say certainty, that some or all of these questions—British troops on the ground, intervention in Syria, perhaps in semi-alliance with Bashar Assad, and closer alliance with Iran—will arise in, say, two or three years’ time. We cannot afford ourselves the luxury then of saying that if we had appreciated the difficulties now we would not have voted for intervention today. As I have said, I am strongly in favour of that intervention today but with our eyes wide open.

House of Lords Reform (No. 2) Bill

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Friday 28th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I join the noble Lord, Lord MacGregor, on my own behalf and, if they will permit me, on behalf of my colleagues on these Benches, in saying how much we regret the departure of the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, and how much his speech today shows why we will regret it as much as we shall.

When one is hungry and lunch approaches, one can hope for a good, three-course meal and a glass of wine; or one can hope for a slimming salad; or, if things go awry, one can get perhaps two raisins and a nut. This Bill is, I fear, rather more two raisins and a nut than the sustaining meal that one would like to have. I have nothing against two raisins and a nut but I hope that they will be followed in due course by something more substantial. I very much hope that this Bill—for which we owe a huge amount, as others have said, to the tenacity of the noble Lord, Lord Steel—will be followed by a more substantive reform Bill, or Bills, over time.

I say that because after some seven and a half years in this House, I am convinced of its importance to our constitutional position as a revising Chamber able to hold the Government to account and as a House that wins respect nationally and internationally—not least in the European Union, for which respect the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, must take much credit—for the quality and objectivity of its work. That respect really matters to this House and to our constitution, and it must be retained. There must surely be a risk that if the House gets ever larger without reform, it will sooner or later topple over and the respect in which it is held will dissipate over time. That is extremely serious.

I therefore very much agree with the noble Lord, Lord Steel, and others that we need a proper reform Bill to follow this one—a Bill that will reduce the size of the House, end the election of hereditary Peers, and put the Appointments Commission on a statutory basis. I no longer chair the commission and am delighted that my noble friend Lord Kakkar does so, but I have believed and still believe that a commission that appoints people to this House or approves such appointments should be accountable to this House. The only way in which such a commission can be properly accountable to this House is for it to be established on a statutory basis. I am delighted that that proposal will come forward again in the next Session, in the Bill proposed by my noble friend Lady Hayman.

Meanwhile, we have this Bill, which I support. Its three main proposals are sensible and necessary—the ability to resign but not rescind resignation; enforced resignation following absence without good reason for a whole Session; and forced resignation after a serious criminal conviction. All are, as I say, sensible and necessary as a first step towards further reform of the House.

I have one concern, mentioned by the noble Lords, Lord MacGregor and Lord Steel. It has been suggested that Clause 4(5), which explicitly permits resignation from the Lords to be followed by standing for the Commons, could lead political parties to regard the Lords as a sort of training ground for the Commons, which would jeopardise this House’s principal role as a Chamber that revises and sometimes challenges the Commons, and therefore needs to keep its distance and separation from the Commons. It has been argued, previously and today, that those concerns are exaggerated, which may indeed be right. However, if the Bill were to have such an effect, the provision would indeed be serious for the role of this House and for our constitution.

I am glad that the Constitution Committee recognises that risk. It would go a long way to reassure those who hold those concerns if the Leader of the House and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, can say, as has been said in the Commons, that it is not their intention that the implementation of the Bill should harm the constitutional position of this House in that way, and that appropriate action would be taken if, none the less, that were to happen. My noble friend Lady Hayman, who cannot be here today, has asked me to say that she shares the hope that the Leader and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, will speak in that sense. That would reassure those of us who have some concerns here, and make both the raisins and nut at least more palatable—if not, in the longer term, sustaining.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and Philippines

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I am grateful to my noble friend for his comments on the Philippines. On the Commonwealth conference, I would argue that going to Sri Lanka—and I obviously understand the points he makes about the anxieties that many people have about the situation there—will enable us and the rest of the world to have a greater focus on the problems there and help to address them. Therefore, while I understand the general point he made about wanting to work to ensure that all Commonwealth countries abide by basic human rights, in this case, having the CHOGM there has helped to take forward the case of the human rights of those people, particularly those living in the north of the island.

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I think that the Prime Minister was right to go to Sri Lanka; it is much better to confront difficult issues than to duck them. It is equally important, however, that now that the issue has been confronted, the confrontation should continue. Will the Leader of the House say a little bit more about how the Prime Minister intends that the pressure on Sri Lanka over human rights be continued in the year or two ahead? Was there support for that pressure from within the Commonwealth itself?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

At the moment, I am not able to add any specific information as to the next steps that will be taken. This was the beginning of a process initiated by the Prime Minister in Sri Lanka just a few days ago. He made clear, for instance, the need for an independent inquiry to say that if there are not steps taken and some progress made by March, the next step would be an escalation through the UN, pressing for an international inquiry. Other steps have started: the establishment in August, for example, by the Sri Lankan Government of a commission into the disappearances. That would be another initiative—another piece of work—that we would all want to observe to see what progress is made. There will be a number of strands that we will need to observe as the months go on, but what I can certainly say is that, having been there and seen for himself the situation in the north of the island—the first head of a foreign Government to go there for 65 years—my right honourable friend will do everything he can to keep up the sort of pressure for which the noble Lord is calling.