Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, one of the downsides of being one of the youngest Peers on these Benches is that you are expected to go last. It is a privilege to pay tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. I would like to make two points, one general and one personal. When we talk about public duty, we barely do the phrase justice when associated with Her Majesty the Queen. I recently watched that...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 118A in my name. Before I make any substantive remarks, I say on the record that, on perhaps the hottest day ever recorded in this country, this Chamber is cooler than the Central line; I was on it this morning. I never thought I could put the House of Lords and being cool in the same sentence. I want to thank a few people who have helped me put these...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, having hurried in here, I am now out of breath. We seem to have caused a bit of a stir with the first round of amendments, but what I liked was that our fiery debate was very respectful. We all have our own opinions, which are very strong from time to time, but I really liked how respectful it was. During the last round of debates, I spent a lot of my time trying to save people from...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: I thank the Minister very much for that answer. The irony of this discussion is that we have spent hours and hours on the Bill, and we are proposing an expenditure of about £200 million on the basis of one fraud: one out of 47 million. What I am suggesting is that we find a way, first in principle, to get 9 million people to have a voice. I know it is difficult; it will not be a walk in the...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: It has been an interesting debate. I want us to move on, but I want to pick up a couple of points raised, not least those raised by my noble friends Lady Verma and Lord Desai regarding the point that there is not a race issue around voter ID. I think we should put our political colours aside for the moment—that is really important—and look at the facts. When we did these pilot projects,...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, I will not be making a long speech today, which I am sure many noble Lords will be pleased to hear. I begin by thanking Jessica Garland from the Electoral Reform Society, Maddy Moore from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Mr Alfiaz Vaiya, who heads up my office here at Westminster. I said a lot in the previous debates, so I do not want to go over that, but I do want to highlight...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, I support the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman. Seven hours ago, when my back was not aching, there was a good discussion in the Chamber about not rushing through legislation. Do noble Lords remember that? We must not rush it through because, if we do, we are in danger of getting it profoundly wrong. I was pleased that the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community has...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: With respect, it was not photo ID, it was ID. That also means non-photo ID. I am afraid that the goalposts are being shifted, which could have a dramatic effect.
Lord Woolley of Woodford: To answer the noble Lord’s question, I was citing the review of voter ID from the local elections in 2019. It is difficult to judge what happened in Northern Ireland, but it is easier to judge what happened with these pilot projects in England. That is what the Government set out to look at—to see what happened when people showed up. The Government now want photo ID but, in the pilot...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, waiting five hours to speak, you can get a bit anxious. I am not quite sure how you do this on a regular basis. I would have preferred not to be here today; I would have preferred to be in Cambridge, at Homerton College with my students. We have a big event on, and I would have liked to be there with them, but I told them I need to be here discussing the Bill, because of its immense...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, I too very much enjoyed the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Moore—sadly, he is not here right now. Today was the first time we have been in the same room together, but during the Brexit referendum we had a long telephone conversation. Afterwards, he wrote in one of his papers, “I had a conversation with Simon Woolley. I profoundly disagree with him, but he does seem like a...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: Yes, it was something like that. The Government often point to the suspected corruption in Tower Hamlets. I should remind noble Lords that that was mainly to do with postal votes, so voter ID would have made little difference. Interestingly, the Government have wrestled with Covid restrictions, seeking to weigh up keeping people safe and allowing our businesses and our society to stay open...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, this feels a little like being back at school; with a name like Woolley, I am always near the end of the list. I will focus my remarks on Clause 9 of this piece of legislation, but before that I want to take a minute of my time to reflect on my first two years here, and particularly the last year when I sat on the Youth Unemployment Select Committee, headed by the very able noble...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, let me first say: shame on the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, for making cheap, divisive remarks in this debate about Afghanistan by claiming that Black Lives Matter is somehow against the interest of the UK. Black Lives Matter is about equality, diversity and decency—something that he lacked today. Today, the slogans of “America is back” and “Global Britain” both sound...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reference race equality in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill.
Lord Woolley of Woodford: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the (1) guidance, and (2) duty being placed on colleges, to review local skills provision, to include an explicit reference to ethnicity.
Lord Woolley of Woodford: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the (1) guidance, and (2) duty being placed on colleges, to review local skills provision includes guidance on advancing race equality in further education.
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, I too thank the England team and its manager Gareth Southgate for providing so much joy for millions during the Euro football championship. Does the Minister agree with me that not only must the deluge of racist abuse towards black players be condemned and perpetrators brought to justice but it should not be fuelled in the first place by politicians, some of whom, if we are honest,...
Lord Woolley of Woodford: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take (1) to narrow attainment gaps, and (2) to address racial inequalities, as part of their education recovery package and catch-up programme.
Lord Woolley of Woodford: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question in my name on the Order Paper, and I highlight my interests in the register.
