Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life

Debate between Lord Sentamu and Baroness Smith of Malvern

Monday 7th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right. The best best start centres will involve local communities and parents and will emphasise, as she does, the needs and voices of parents who most need to be able to access those services. There will be a strong message to local authorities that that engagement and a co-development should be an important part of the way in which they take all this.

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

I, too, welcome this Statement—it is a wonderful Statement. The Minister’s opening remarks give hope. I have a particular interest, as I have two grandchildren in Luton and one in Birmingham. The backdrop to Sure Start was that wonderful report that Robert Runcie published, called Faith in the City. The problems then were that residents faced social and economic decline, with poor housing on large estates, with unemployment and poverty and issues with education and policing. The call was that both church and government and everybody should be doing something about this. Sure Start was an inspired vision, and I for one want to say that, whatever anybody says, it worked. But in order that children are not failed from when they begin, are the Government going to take on those great hindrances to learning and well-being that we see particularly in the inner cities?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble and right reverend Lord rightly says that, although this is important progress, and we will have a broad range of partners, there are of course other issues, such as child poverty and lack of housing, which this Government are absolutely committed to addressing.

“For Women Scotland” Supreme Court Ruling

Debate between Lord Sentamu and Baroness Smith of Malvern

Thursday 24th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I will come back to the noble Baroness about that. There are elements of this ruling and the scope of the Equality Act that we need to look at carefully, but I will come back to her.

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

My Lords, I was in your Lordships’ House when the Equality Act was debated for a number of days. Lord Lester of Herne Hill and I were sparring partners, but we were very clear then that, as the Supreme Court has said, when you talk about a woman you mean this. That is very clear in the debates in this House. Now that the ruling has been clarified, there is a question that people wanted to ask, and the judges have said that this not a winning position for one group or another. How will the Government ensure that anybody who wants to comment reads that judgment clearly so that they know where it is going, and that trans people’s rights have not been taken away but remain? What will the Government do to help trans people who now feel as if they have become second-class citizens?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I hope I provided some reassurance in my opening comments. The noble and right reverend Lord is right that this does not remove legal protections for trans people.