Downing Street Event

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I believe in the rule of law, the sanctity of respect between human beings and in due process. I repeat what I said in the Statement, that as with all investigations, it will be the case with this one that if evidence emerges of what is potentially a criminal offence, the matter will be referred to the police.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords, at the beginning of the Statement that the noble Lord read out to us, there was an apology. What was being apologised for?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, the Statement read:

“I apologise again unreservedly for the upset that these allegations have caused.”

Downing Street Christmas Parties

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Thursday 9th December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

I am sorry, but the noble Baroness cannot speak from that Bench. If she would like to move to the Bench behind, she may speak from there.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

The Minister referred to everybody being required to make their records available to the inquiry. Will that include their electronic records, such as their mobile phone and email system, so that those are available for the benefit of the inquiry?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, as I said, the terms of reference will be published by the Cabinet Secretary later today. If that is not clear in the terms of reference, I hope that it will be made clear. We are asking all Ministers, all special advisers and all civil servants to co-operate fully with the investigations. Any staff with information relevant to the investigations should provide it.

Ministerial Code

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Tuesday 9th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

Does the Minister to any degree share my sense of shame and outrage at the extent to which the requirements of the Ministerial Code have been trashed by this Government? As there are no planned changes to the Ministerial Code, can we at least anticipate that the Government will take their existing responsibilities seriously as a solemn and binding duty to the British people?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, of course. Again, I do not agree with the political comment at the outset. The Government will carefully consider comments made by parliamentarians in both Houses, as well as the work of Mr Nigel Boardman, the CSPL and PACAC, when the committee reports. We will make a policy statement in due course but, as your Lordships would expect, we intend to consider these matters carefully.

EU Referendum: Lessons Learned

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I entirely agree with the noble Baroness. I welcome what Facebook has already done in identifying political advertisements on its system. A review of online advertising was announced on 12 February to look into what is called the advertising ecosystem. As regards digital imprints, I agree with the noble Baroness; we announced two weeks ago that we agreed in principle that there should be an imprint on digital advertising, as there is on printed material, and we are about to consult on exactly what that should cover and when it should be introduced. But again, were there to be a referendum in the near future, there would need to be specific legislation to deal with it.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords, I am not wildly enthusiastic about referenda—I was not enthusiastic the first time round and I am not for a second one. Would it not be better to take action now to create the circumstances in which we can have a proper national debate about what we want rather than what we do not want, which would best be facilitated by revoking Article 50?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

As the noble Lord will know, that is not the Government’s policy, nor would it be consistent with the decision of the electorate two years ago. To return to the first part of his question, I agree that we should have a debate. A good report on referendums was produced by the Constitution Unit at UCL, on which the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Eames, sat, together with Jenny Watson, the chair of the Electoral Commission. There have been other reports on referendums, which I mentioned in my original reply. I agree wholeheartedly that we could have a useful debate. I am not in favour of a royal commission—we do not have time for that.

UK Democratic System: Interference by Russia

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 2nd July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that one of the greatest threats to the resilience of our democracy is having a Government who are split asunder from top to bottom and are being threatened with all sorts of privations when they have to get together at Chequers this weekend to see whether they can thrash out not only an agreement but a White Paper that was promised the best part of a year ago?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

Well, I am not sure what sort of elastic the noble Lord is using in order to stretch a Question about resilience against Russian interference into alleged diversions of opinion within one political party. I say very gently to the noble Lord that perhaps his own party is not wholly united on this issue.

Terrorism: Public Alert Technology

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 16th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

No, the system the Government are looking at is not one you would have to opt in to, as with many of the existing systems. You would get messages automatically, which is why I think it raises some of the issues touched on in the previous answer.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that the problems he has outlined are very large compared with the technological problems associated with introducing identity cards? Will he come forward with at least the same enthusiasm on identity cards in the future?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I hate to disappoint the noble Lord but the introduction of ID cards is not on the Government’s agenda at the moment, nor do I think it will be in the near future.

Economy: Productivity

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Tuesday 12th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bridges of Headley]

I hear what the noble Lord says about HS2, but I would not say that these were mutually exclusive. As I have said, the UK will invest more than £100 billion in infrastructure over this Parliament. My noble friend wishes to see more investment in roads. The £15 billion of investment in the roads investment strategy will include resurfacing more than 80% of the strategic road network and delivering more than 1,300 miles of additional lanes. As I say, these are not mutually exclusive.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

When the Minister replied to my noble friend Lord Harrison, he produced a long list of good intentions, but none of them has actually come into effect. In a subsequent answer, he went on to tell us about a number of measures that the Government have taken. Having taken all those measures, we now have the appalling productivity statement from our own department dealing with national statistics. I am not going to accuse the Minister of being complacent, but he really has to get a better story to tell.

[Lord Bridges of Headley]

I hear what the noble Lord says, but I think that we do have a good story to tell. I draw his attention to the national infrastructure plan that was published, which sets out very clearly what the Government are doing and how we are delivering it.

Voting: UK Overseas Citizens

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bridges of Headley]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for his advice. As he just said, we will be awaiting the dates of the referendum in due course.

[Lord Tomlinson (Lab)]

Would the noble Lord accept that there is something particularly wrong when people serving this country overseas—particularly the many Britons who serve in European Union institutions and have developed their career there—are denied a vote? It is particularly obscene that they should be denied a vote in a referendum on our future membership of the European Union. Will he ensure that something is done as speedily as possible about that particular category?

[Lord Bridges of Headley]

My Lords, the franchise for the EU referendum is obviously based on the parliamentary franchise, and that is what we intend to stick to.

Voting: Young People

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2014 Lords Chamber

Tabled by

[Lord Tomlinson]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to increase the number of young people registered to vote.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab)]

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Tomlinson, and at his request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the Order Paper.

EU: UK Membership

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, this Government have made it a priority to increase our engagement with Germany. We have nearly quadrupled the number of ministerial and senior official bilateral visits to Germany each year compared with 2009-10. We have established joint meetings twice a year of the British-German ministerial committees on the European Union, in which I take part myself. The Foreign Secretary has made many visits to Germany, most recently to the Königswinter conference on 31 May, and the Prime Minister works very closely and regularly with Chancellor Merkel.

[Lord Tomlinson]

Does the Minister accept that, in the impressive list that he gave of things that we are discussing with our German friends, he did not mention our future engagement with justice and home affairs, on which I am sure that the German Government have strong views, somewhat in conflict with the views expressed from the government Front Bench in the other place yesterday?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

I thank the noble Lord for his usual extremely constructive contribution. Of course we are discussing co-operation in police and judicial matters with the Germans, as we are discussing all other matters.