King’s Speech

Lord Case Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Case (CB) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is an honour to be speaking in your Lordships’ House for the first time, especially in the context of His Majesty’s most gracious Speech and as a warm-up act for the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy. The State Opening is a reminder of how well our nation does pageantry and ceremony. Therefore, I pay tribute to all the public servants who supported the occasion. I am, of course, individually grateful to so many of those same members of the House staff who have made me welcome here in this place.

Our sovereign’s appearance last week was also a reminder of the balance struck within our modern constitutional settlement, which mingles so intricately the majesty of monarchy with the somewhat gnarlier necessities of modern governance—the sparkling jewels of the dignified crown with the rather more thrusting battleground of 21st-century politics. As we have all been taught over the ages, both constitutional pillars have their essential parts to play, and both require due care and attention.

I was fortunate enough to learn my constitutional history at the feet of some of our finest teachers in the arts and crafts of the British constitution. In particular, the debt I owe to my greatest of noble friends, Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, is one which can never be repaid. His instruction and guidance have sustained, challenged and encouraged so many students over decades, and we are all much the better for it. “The Prof”, as we affectionately know him, has so often celebrated the mysteries of our largely unwritten constitution. As already noted, more recently he has invited us to observe with sadness the smashed pieces of our so-called “good chap” principles strewn across the floor of royal palaces.

If we are to sustain our tradition of a largely unwritten and therefore dynamic constitution, we must be for ever mindful of its inherent fragility. The flexibility we celebrate can so easily become the catastrophe we regret. Herein lies the essential teaching. As each of us takes our place in line between those who came before and those who will come after, we must recognise our greatest duty of all: that of stewardship. Individually and collectively we are required to make sure that, as our precious union continues its steady stroll through time, decisions, especially those that affect our constitutional foundations, are taken deliberately and thoughtfully, not blithely nor under anaesthesia, as the noble Lord, Lord Wilson of Dinton, once put it to one of the classes of the noble Lord, Lord Hennessey. A deliberate constitution can serve the nation; a careless constitution leaves us unmoored and at risk.

To be clear, I do not argue that the job is the preservation of the status quo. When one looks around this country and talks to people in some of our communities most in need—in places like Barrow-in-Furness, where I chair a regeneration partnership, as recorded in my register of interests—we can see that in too many eyes, power is not being wielded in the interests of those who seek to build or strengthen communities. Power has to be aligned so that it enables those who have the passion, creativity and knowledge to improve lives and efficiently and effectively give people up and down this country the opportunities to thrive that they so deserve.

His Majesty informed us that his Government are committed to the strength and integrity of the union of the United Kingdom. That task, I humbly suggest, needs to be one shared far and wide. The preservation of our union is too often reduced to an immediate scrum between specific political parties in any given political moment, yet I argue that it is a far more serious and enduring task than that. It is one rooted in the humble and thoughtful development of our institutions, in the deliberate adjustment of our constitutional arrangements to support those who would do good in our communities, and in taking seriously our duty to take what we have learned from those who came before us and to hand on an improved lot to those who come after. It is perhaps the most important task of all.