Queen’s Speech

Lord Dubs Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dubs (Lab)]

My Lords, I will speak briefly about Channel 4, and about the Human Rights Act, and then spend a little longer talking about refugees.

Many Members of the House have already criticised the Government’s proposals on Channel 4 and I subscribe totally to those criticisms. I just want to ask the Government a question. As I understand it, if they get that far—and I hope they do not—the Government will put Channel 4 up for sale. In doing that, according to what they said earlier, they are willing to have anybody in the world bid for it—presumably not the Russians, but presumably some Americans. I simply ask the Government this: do they want to give up Margaret Thatcher’s great achievement in setting up Channel 4 and allow a foreign company, maybe an American company, to buy it? Is that what we want? Do we want our media, an essential part of our democracy, to be owned by people abroad? Already quite a bit of it is owned by people abroad; we do not want any more to be.

I turn briefly to the Human Rights Act. I serve on the Joint Committee on Human Rights. We will in due course be able to provide the full results of our inquiries, but for now we are only taking evidence. I have one question for the Government. What assurances will the Government give us that they will not proceed with changes to the Human Rights Act unless and until the devolved Administrations have been consulted and have agreed to the proposed changes? We surely cannot have a position where one of the devolved Administrations is very unhappy about them. Human rights should surely apply equally and be equally accepted in all parts of the United Kingdom. Human rights are fundamental to the Good Friday agreement, and it would be a retrograde step if we moved away from that.

I very much regret that the Home Secretary seeks to criticise lawyers as if they are somehow opposed to the Government in principle. They represent their clients and surely, in a democracy, we want lawyers to be able to do that. Where does that not happen? It does not happen in Russia, in China, in Belarus. There, there is no idea that lawyers could represent people against the Government. It is part of our democracy, and it ill behoves the Home Secretary to criticise lawyers for what they do.

Briefly on refugees, it is clear that our willingness to accept Ukrainians and the British public’s positive response are being undermined by the bureaucratic shambles emanating from the Home Office. There have been many examples of that, and it is regrettable because it is quite unnecessary. Turning to the issue of children, I want to talk about the particular case of a young girl, which is typical of what has happened. On 11 April, her mother applied for her to come to Britain. The sponsors were lined up, they and the school she was to attend had been vetted, the local authority was happy and all the safeguarding measures were in place. The Home Office suggested that the Ukrainian Government were not happy. However, I checked with the Ukrainian ambassador, and he was happy that this girl should come to her sponsors in Britain.

I fully understand why safeguarding measures for young people are critical—of course they are—and we would not wish to lower our standards, but what has happened? On 11 April, the application was made. At that time, unaccompanied children were able to come to the UK. By 16 April, the arrangement had been changed and the young girl could no longer come to the UK. I am told that her application is now on hold. Nevertheless, on the basis of the original position adopted by the Home Office, and the forms and so on, the girl left her mother, who is looking after her disabled son in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine, and is now a bit further west, but still in danger in a war zone. She is 17 years old, and she is vulnerable. If the Home Office is saying that we must safeguard the position in the UK, which, as I have already explained, is gold-plated, surely, we must not leave a 17 year-old girl in a war zone where she could not be in more danger, her rights could not be weaker and her position could not be more vulnerable. The application was made in good faith, and Home Office has reneged on it. It now says that if it made a mistake, it might look at it again—although it did not say it quite as clearly as that.

This is not the only example. We should not be saying to unaccompanied children that we do not want them to come here because their position is insufficiently safeguarded. It is a shame on this country. We make pious statements about how much we want to support Ukrainians and how much we respect them, and then we turn our back on them in this shabby manner.