Education (Values of British Citizenship) Bill [HL]

Baroness Uddin Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 18th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I thank the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries. It is a pleasure to follow the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss.

In 1973, as a secondary school student, in the eyes of all my teachers except one, I was visible only through the ancient, preconceived notion of the cultural and religious oppression of women—that higher education was useless for an Asian girl who, at most, would work in a factory and would certainly be married off at an early age. I did not disappoint anyone, in that I did get married very early, but of my own choosing. It is a fact that the third and fourth generation particularly of Muslim girls and women continue these trajectories of British values.

It is not culture, colour or faith that constrain individuals from reaching their full potential or aiding their sense of belonging; it is history and a legacy of colonisation, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia rooted in our institutions that intrinsically deny citizens equitable opportunities to excel. In 2024, countless UK education establishments continue to fail generations of children who are working class, black British, of Afro-Caribbean descent and of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritages. We see the grave consequences of prolonged alienation, which leads to distrust in communities and violence on our streets.

It is not just a piece of paper that induces pride in citizenship; a plethora of social actions is required to repair broken communities, with a systemic shift in unbiased education, social policies and investment. I also fear the risk of othering, in the context of redefining new British values, when we prescribe who is worthy of legitimate freedom of speech and assembly, while questioning the inalienable rights of others who are seen through a prism of spreading hate, including the threat of revoking citizenship.

Our conduct at home and our action elsewhere are visible to the global village. Equally, our response to international wars and conflicts, in upholding the values of human rights and international law, is rightly receiving significant scrutiny and eroding confidence and trust in our democratic institutions at home. When we speak of British values, it is impossible to consider their application without the intrinsic hierarchy of the implied legacy of slavery and colonisation and the lenses of culture, religion, racial wars and class divisions. Unless we recognise the complexities of common values, we will not prevail among all citizens equally.