Asylum Support (Prescribed Period) Bill [HL]

Lord Griffiths of Burry Port Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 13th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Griffiths of Burry Port (Lab)]

My Lords, it is with a readiness to admit that the substantive points that I might have wanted to make have been made that I begin to share my thoughts today. I began the week in the company of the noble Lord, Lord German, in Paris at the migration committee of the Council of Europe. We rather missed the presence of the noble Lord, Lord Russell of Liverpool, who has just stepped down from that committee, but we have noticed over the years that there tends not to be much representation from the Conservative side of this House present at the migration committee—though there is membership, not much attendance has tended to be part of the discussion of migration either in Paris or in Strasbourg. It is sad that the noble Lord, with whom we have enjoyed jousts in the past, is the sole voice for the Conservative Party in this debate.

I echo the readiness of the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, to give a third cheer, as and when; all I can say is that, as and when it came to pass, it would get a rather rousing cheer from me. We have here people unable to be the human beings they were made to be by doing something productive and having a role. That seems to me to be a denial of something rather beyond the right to work, and so on: the right to be human, in a very different sense. The other thing is that I wonder whether the Minister might persuade us that the decision-making that led to the extension of the period from 28 to 56 days is not the last word on the matter. Since it is common sense for it to happen at all, it does not seem reasonable to me that the common sense should run out in June next year, and we should go on having a lengthier period during which the formalities could be completed.

With that—and, I hope, Hansard noting that the reverend Lord Griffiths of Burry Port did not use his three minutes—that is my contribution to today’s debate.