Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) Regulations 2020

Debate between Lord Roberts of Llandudno and Lord Faulkner of Worcester

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

This morning I spoke to some of our local councillors, who all said that the areas worst affected by the virus outbreak are the poorest ones. I therefore suggest that our battle is not just against the virus but against poverty, and we must take that seriously. We must realise that even when this lockdown comes to an end and people go back to work, about 4 million are forecast not to have any work as their jobs will have come to an end, which will just add to the poverty. We must therefore now make sure that the benefits received and help given to those who are furloughed in various parts of the country continue, to stop the desperation that people must feel when their income more or less disappears and all the other help that they get has gone. We must somehow stop poverty itself, as it increases the harshness of the virus.

We could of course look at Brexit because, yesterday or the day before, the LSE forecast that the areas worst affected by the exit from Europe will be very hard-pressed, and said that they will have difficulties on top of the virus. I therefore ask the Government—I know it is late but it is possible—to cut that poverty at a stroke, and by so doing make it easier for us to recover from the virus epidemic.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)]

I call the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner.

Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill

Debate between Lord Roberts of Llandudno and Lord Faulkner of Worcester

2nd reading & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 22nd July 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)]

The noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, has withdrawn from the speakers’ list. The next speaker is the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Llandudno.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

When this Bill emerges, it will define our place and reputation. Will we be proud to have been here? As the verse at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty says:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”


Is that what we want to be remembered for? Or will it be: bring me those who earn between £25,000 and £30,000 per year? Or, bring me those we think of as being best for us? Is it not better to welcome those who are most in need in the world? About 200 or 300 members of staff at the House of Lords earn less than that minimum income that is required to come to the UK—those wonderful people. Need, not greed, should define us, so that people come to us because we want to welcome them. We are trying to build a world which is fit for children to live in, yet we are far, far away from that.

I suggest we look at what will happen with income in Committee, and say that we have to mend this. We have to make this an Immigration Bill with a human face. Thinking of those detained in our immigration centres, we know we are the only country in Europe that has indefinite detention. When the Chief Inspector of Prisons visited some of those detention centres in May this year, it was found that one person had been detained for three years, while another 12 had been detained for 12 months. There is something so wrong with what we are doing with our immigrants. This Bill gives us a chance, so that history will say we took a step that was humane, kindly and concerned. Let us take it.