Queen’s Speech

Viscount Chandos Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Chandos (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the register of interests and, particularly in the light of what I intend to say on further and higher education, to my positions as a trustee of LAMDA and independent chair of the trade association, the CSA, which is also an apprenticeship provider.

I congratulate my noble friend Lady Blake of Leeds and the noble Lord, Lord Lebedev, on their excellent maiden speeches. The noble Lord referred to the late Lord Thomson of Fleet, who established the Thomson Foundation, of which I am currently the chair. That prompts me to add to the tributes paid earlier. The first rule of accepting any position is to choose one’s predecessor carefully. I had the immense good fortune to have had the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, as my predecessor at the foundation. The extraordinary work that foundation does in training journalists and developing sustainable independent media in challenging parts of the world owes so much to him.

Like other noble Lords, I welcome the Government’s stated intention in the Loyal Address to boost further education, lifelong learning and apprenticeships. Both the Economic Affairs Committee and the Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision have in recent years argued for substantially increased resources for further education. While judgment has to await the details of the Bill and a better understanding of how the Government will implement their plans, the positive reception to that part of the Loyal Address is understandable.

If only, as many other noble Lords have said, the Government had also shown any sign of action on adult social care, on which the Economic Affairs Committee also published a report in July 2019. After 22 months, there has still been no government response, even though the committee pressed the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he appeared before it a year ago. It seems as if not only did the Prime Minister not have an oven-ready plan, but the hot potato of this issue is being lobbed from one arm of government to another.

Reverting briefly to education, the welcome and promised commitment to FE must not be at the expense of the higher education sector. We all owe our gradually increasing freedom in large part to the excellence of our universities. Our economic recovery is also dependent on them, as well as on the significant improvement in the provision of lifelong learning. In turn, within the higher education sector, it is simplistic and wrong to think that STEM subjects alone prepare the next generation for the workplace of the future, however important it is to maintain and enhance our universities’ provision of degrees in STEM subjects. Sir Michael Moritz, arguably the most successful technology investor of his generation, graduated in history from Oxford University. When increasing resources for STEM subjects, the Government must not impoverish the liberal arts, which continue to prepare students for successful careers in every walk of life.

My noble friend Lord Eatwell and other noble Lords have surgically exposed the poverty and inconsistency of the Government’s overall economic policies. Political commentators have suggested that the Conservatives have occupied Labour’s ground in terms of public spending commitments. In the interests of the country at large, even if that were against my party’s electoral interest, I would be delighted if that proved to be the case. However, the measures adopted by the Government in response to the pandemic do not indicate a conversion to the values and policies of the Labour Party. The noble Lord, Lord Bridges, at the same time as dissecting the Government’s paucity of imagination, still expressed unease at the level of spending needed to fund even the current policies. If there had been a truly deep change of heart on the part of the Government, how could they continue to resist maintaining the £20 increase in universal credit, at a time when our unemployment benefit is at 15% of average earnings, in contrast to the 80% of earnings that the furlough schemes provided?