Part of Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill - Committee (11th Day) – in the House of Lords at 12:15 pm on 16 September 2025.
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
Green
12:15,
16 September 2025
My Lords, I briefly speak against Amendment 502YE and the consequent amendment. We need schools to have clear guidance to support gender-questioning children, but rushing out the statutory guidance will help neither young people nor schools. I am sure that the Government acknowledge that they need to take the time to get this right.
With regard to the other amendments in this group, and just to respond to the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, on tried-and-tested knowledge, textbooks and things that have been there for decades, we are of course talking in an age when, thankfully, Section 28 is long in the past. Rampant homophobia, misogyny and so on were in our textbooks for many decades and we should be very much celebrating that that has disappeared. It is also worth noting that we do not need the internet to spread very harmful ideas in this space. I will note that there is an MP in the other place who, until this week, was sitting on the Tory Benches and has now shifted to the Reform Benches. He is on record as saying that
“the only possible basis for a safe and successful society” is marriages between men and women. His new party leader has expressed approval of such sentiments. We need to acknowledge that we have many places where harmful ideas are being spread in our society.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
The House of Lords. When used in the House of Lords, this phrase refers to the House of Commons.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
