King’s Speech

Lord Winston Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

My Lords, it has been a pleasure to listen to what has been an interesting and far-reaching debate, and I am grateful to have the opportunity of speaking on this.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

When considering the highly volatile nature of international affairs at this time, it is not surprising to hear so many insightful and well-informed speeches in your Lordships’ House, especially from the noble Lords, Lord Roberts and Lord Young. I join the noble Lord, Lord Wilson, in his comments about David Cameron in his new office as Foreign Secretary. We need strong leadership at this time and people who really understand the world and its affairs, and who have good contacts. It is a dangerous and difficult place, and we do need that.

I will start by saying a few words on international trade because I believe that is essential in bringing countries together and is a force for good. With our departure from the European Union, we have an unrivalled opportunity to benefit from free trade. I was so encouraged to see the Government bring forward the Bill to promote free trade and investment, particularly with the CPTPP. This opportunity to bring together with the UK a number of middle-ranking countries in the Pacific, along with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and all the others in that club, enables us to have more of an influence in free trade, especially with like-minded countries.

In a dangerous and unstable world, it is vital that the Government approach future bilateral agreements with strategic foresight and understanding that the trade deals of today must pave the way for broader co-operation and the security of tomorrow.

I congratulate the Prime Minister on the success of the UK’s AI summit at Bletchley and I am pleased to see that the focus on this important and fast-moving area remains a priority for the Government. This is partly because the future of trade, particularly digital trade, is entwined with advancements in AI. If we can remain at the forefront of harnessing and correctly regulating the application of this transformative technology, we will pave the way for a truly global Britain where our business can thrive and our markets expand. That said, we all know that AI is not without risks, and I therefore hope that the Government will continue to look carefully at AI’s impact on trade, particularly in the context of cybersecurity and ensuring the safety and reliability of digital trade.

Against the backdrop of the worrying situation in Israel, I further welcome the Government’s commitment to progressing the economic activities of public bodies Bill, and I hope that, with the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the UK, this legislation will be timetabled to progress with speed. As a former leader of a council, I can say with confidence that local residents simply want their councillors to get on with the job of delivering high-quality and cost-effective services. It is not the job of councils to pursue their own foreign policy agendas, especially in ways which undermine the UK’s international standing and leave individual communities at risk of hate and persecution. I therefore welcome this government commitment.

One cannot miss the opportunity today to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Rwanda plan, which shows just how difficult the situation is and that a change of direction is now needed. We need a robust, fair system to deal with asylum seekers. As I have said previously, I believe that should be through bilateral deals with countries—I cite the example of the Albanian joint communiqué that was announced not very long ago. I believe that is the direction of travel we should be following.

I conclude by reminding His Majesty’s Government that Britain, with its rich history, economic prowess and defence capabilities, has an unparalleled opportunity to be at the forefront of causing the international order to meet the demands of this highly interconnected world. The task of steadying the choppy waters of global affairs is becoming more difficult by the day. The challenges are immense but the potential for a brighter and more secure future is within our grasp, and that is why the Government have my support in delivering on the promises outlined in the gracious Speech.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords, I apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Udny-Lister, for interrupting him at the beginning of his speech. My sight is not terribly good and I misread the Order Paper.

I suppose I am a geneticist, partly at least. Some years ago, shortly after the genome had been sequenced successfully, I made a television programme about the sequencing, and the BBC took my blood and a swab as well to test my DNA quite anonymously, so I did not know anything about the results. I was extremely surprised to see that, out of four particular alleles, which are present in only about 1% of the population, three of them came from the area of Judea—what is now part of the Palestinian West Bank—and I have them in common with the people there. So I suppose I have a real reason to speak in this debate.

If we go forward 1,500 years later, my direct ancestor, Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, was a great scholar who was four when he was expelled from Spain in 1492, and then expelled from Portugal at the age of nine, from where he went to Morocco. From Morocco, he had to move to Turkey, Adrianople—Edirne, really—and then Salonika. He was also in Nikopol in Ukraine. He truly was one of the boat people: many of that family died on the boats and he was a child for a good deal of the time when that happened.

Karo, it turned out, was a great sage. He was brilliantly educated, speaking Arabic, of course, as well as Hebrew. He eventually landed up in northern Israel, in in a place called Safed. There he founded a community which eventually grew to 14,000 people, nearly all of them Jewish. There were 18 seminaries there and Muslims came and sat at his feet, because they had a very close relationship. They came mostly from what is now Syria and Lebanon. Now, in the north of Israel, Hezbollah shoots its missiles, and my great nephew is watching out and holding guard.

In many of Lord Sacks’s speeches—I can count 19—in this House, he talks about the central moral principles of Judaism, and he emphasises the Pikuach nefesh, the notion of the sanctity of human life, the idea that we are made in the image of God. It has been hard for me to talk in this debate. I have to say that I am bewildered by doubt, haunted and deeply dismayed by what is happening.

I am not fighting this war, and I know from experience —I go to Israel very frequently professionally—that the IDF has high moral principles which we all share. There have of course been calls during this debate and elsewhere for a ceasefire. That might be for the best, but none of us here in this Chamber is a general fighting this war, and unless we have the detail of what is actually happening, I do not think we are in a position to judge; we are not on the front line and we do not fear for ourselves. We have to accept that we are dealing with a completely unprincipled enemy that has done what it has done repeatedly for years, ever since Israel left Gaza and after many so-called negotiated ceasefires, which have been repeatedly broken.

We can judge things only by reported news, and I regret that the media has frequently been highly irresponsible, to say the least, in its reports. The suffering is of course utterly appalling, and we shed tears over it, but it is also newsworthy to report atrocity, even when the facts are unclear, and even when we are certain: Gazan citizens are used as—forgive me, not as a shield, that is too kind a word; they are expendable. That is the truth of the matter.

One important result of this war, like nearly all wars, is the corruption of truth. An old Talmudic saying of falsehood, is lashon hara, the evil tongue. The noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, is not in his place, but as he mentioned, the focus of falsehood is lie. As the Talmud says, it is like murder. It is not the murder just of one person, the person who is being lied about, but also of the person who promotes that lie and the people who listen to it—so a minimum of three people are effectively dead, according to Talmudic teaching, as a result of falsehoods made of lies and libels. It is a very dangerous situation. Sadly, the media has published many falsehoods and, I think, made it very difficult to judge what is happening.

I co-chair the British-Israel Science Council, supported by the British embassy, to which I acknowledge my thanks. My co-chair, my opposite number, Dr Ruth Ardon, is a much greater scientist than I am, and, like most citizens there, she wants peace and, like many academics in Israel, collaborates with others, not just overseas with Britain but with Palestinians.

I also have many friends from Gaza and Palestine. Sadly, I cannot talk about them and what they say to me because I would endanger them if I did. It is a terrible thing to have to accept. What we can see very clearly is that most Gazans are certainly not supporters of Hamas and most Israelis did not vote for Netanyahu. We must have hope and trust. We need to consider that, and we look forward to changing things in time. It may take a long time, but it is worth doing all we can.