Holocaust Memorial Day

Debate between Lord Young of Norwood Green and Lord Wilson of Sedgefield

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords, I was born a Jew and I am proud to be a Jew, albeit a non-practising one. This has been an amazing debate, and I want to pay tribute the right reverend Prelate—I did not think I would be paying tribute to a a Jewish one—for an amazing speech. There have been some amazing speeches during this debate.

I want to give some experience of my life. We were Dutch Jews on one side of our family. My father changed the name because he wanted to sell more insurance, and he was good at that, so I suppose it was a good move.

Where we lived in the East End, I never experienced any antisemitism. It was a mixed street, mainly Jews. The synagogue was round the corner, and the rabbi was round the other side. I think we had a good upbringing.

When I was 15 years old, I was a precocious reader and I came across a book—

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord’s name is not on the list to speak, but if he would like to keep his remarks short, that would be okay.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

I am sorry. I will endeavour to keep my remarks short. I did not realise that I had to put my name down.

Anyway, when I was 15 years old, I came across a book, The Scourge of the Swastika, which, ironically, was written by the grandfather of the noble Lord, Lord Russell of Liverpool. That taught me a lot about what goes on.

Bearing the mind the strictures that I have to keep my remarks limited, I will do. I think this is a really important debate. I thank the people who have made contributions about needing to do more to ensure that antisemitism remains something that we fight against. I will leave it at that.

Public/Private Partnerships: Shares

Debate between Lord Young of Norwood Green and Lord Wilson of Sedgefield

Monday 3rd November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

We will look at public/private partnerships in the future. We are looking at them in a limited way for neighbourhood health centres, for example, and public estate decontamination projects, but we need certainty over future funding, which is why we have committed over the next decade at least £725 billion of investment in infrastructure so that we can ensure growth.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords, I have had some experience of this, given that my union was involved when BT was privatised in 1984. That was a successful public/private partnership; it is a shame that today there is such scepticism. Of course, it requires the Government to be capable of ensuring a successful negotiation, but it also needs to ensure that the people involved—in my case, it was the union members—get a good deal, and they did get a good deal: for every share they invested, they got two shares back. The reaction from Eurostar is interesting. Virgin Trains is trying to run another train service through the tunnel. What is the reaction of Eurostar? It is to find every legal means possible to oppose it. It does not seem to me to be a good approach. As long as we are going to benefit, and as long as we are going to get growth and productivity, it seems to me that public/private partnerships are a good idea.

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question; it is very good of him. As I said, we will look into how we ensure that public/private partnerships work in the future for the benefit not just of customers but of the Government and the taxpayer. We need to ensure that we move forward on this so that everybody is part of the success story, which I think they can be if it is done right.