Resetting the UK-EU Relationship (European Affairs Committee Report)

Lord Tugendhat Excerpts

Thursday 26th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tugendhat (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak after the noble Baroness, whose service in Brussels was so distinguished and whose experience of the Commission is so much more recent than mine. I believe that this report has the potential to transform British politics. If the reset is successful, it will set us on a path to creating a new relationship with the EU that marks a break with the past and reflects the realities of the present, a relationship that has a life of its own and is not a road to something else, a relationship that will evolve in response to the needs and interests of the two parties, not in accordance with some predetermined and underlying plan. As it progresses, so its ambitions can increase, and the sooner the better.

This is vital and in the national interest. On the one hand, in a threatening and uncertain world, our defence and security interests are intimately bound up with those of our EU neighbours. On the other, the EU, one of the world’s three great trading blocs and the one nearest to us, is by far our largest trading partner. Yet there are those in this country who are so obsessed with the Brexit battles that instead of looking for a new beginning, they present any change in the situation as a plot to subvert the result of the Brexit referendum. We must move on from that attitude.

As I said in a debate a few weeks ago, I believe the policy being pursued by the Government, on which this report makes a number of helpful suggestions, is on the right path—by which I mean the pursuit of agreements with the EU on a range of specific and often technical issues that create a balance of tangible benefits for both sides. If the two sides can do that successfully, it will create a habit of co-operation on the basis of which the new relationship can be built. This report is a constructive contribution to that end; I just hope that the EU will be able to respond in the same spirit. Its own agenda is so full, and its recent record of reaching the internal consensus required to carry forward difficult ventures is not encouraging. The question is: can it, as well as we, rise to the challenge of our times? Will it shake the hand that the Government are extending?

Frequent Flyer Airmiles Schemes

Lord Tugendhat Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

The challenge we face in this country is that we are a major hub for international flights, as well as a country with a significant geographical challenge. We do all we can to ensure that people can take the types of journey they are able to take; it is up to commercial companies to determine how best to take that forward.

[Lord Tugendhat (Con)]

My Lords, might the Minister consider a more rifle-shot approach and, instead of thinking about commercial airlines, think about private jets? Might it be an idea to levy a tax on fuel sold to private jet companies, as distinct from the wider question of national and budget airlines? Private jets might be the best place to start.

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

My noble friend raises a question to which I do not have the answer in my notes. It strikes me that private jets probably constitute a very small proportion of the overall flights in this country, and that private jets may choose not to come here, depending on circumstance.

Home Ownership

Lord Tugendhat Excerpts

Tuesday 17th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, as I have indicated, the Government have just announced £2 billion, and we will be shortly explaining precisely how that money will be spent. Much of it will be going on social rent. We have committed to 1 million new homes by 2020, and 1.5 million new homes—a further half a million—by 2022, which are needed to meet the challenge. It is a far better performance than we have had in recent years. There is a massive challenge here and the Government are aware of this. Part of it is also answered by something that we announced fairly recently: building homes in the right places and ensuring that more of them are built where there is the greatest need and the greatest pressure.

[Lord Tugendhat (Con)]

My Lords, for those of us who began our political careers campaigning for a property-owning democracy, the figures my noble friend has given are somewhat disappointing. It is encouraging that the Government are seized of the issue of intergenerational unfairness which exists at the moment and I look forward to the measures that may perhaps be brought forward in the Budget, but does he not agree that it is not only in respect of difficulties in buying their own home that the young are disadvantaged but in a whole host of other financial aspects, including saving for pensions?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My noble friend is right. The intergenerational fairness to which I referred does not apply just to housing; there is a similar issue in relation to pensions. A lot of work has been done on this, and the Government are looking at it very seriously. He is right that we need to do far more. I should point out that this is against an expanding population so, although the percentage is static at the moment, that still means we need an increased number of homes because the population is still expanding. Yes, there is a massive challenge and the intergenerational fairness issue is not limited to questions of housing.