Representation of the People Bill

Lord Sahota Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 14th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome this Bill because the integrity of our democracy is increasingly under threat, not only from foreign money and misinformation, but from politicians who deliberately seek to divide people by race, religion and immigration status. I want to concentrate on that wider democratic culture.

I am particularly concerned about the direction in which Reform UK under Mr Nigel Farage is seeking to take our political debate. Mr Farage is perfectly entitled to argue for lower immigration and stronger borders. Those are legitimate subjects for a democratic debate. But there is a profound difference between debating immigration and repeatedly presenting immigrants and ethnic minorities as the explanation for everything that is wrong with our country. We saw a disturbing example of this in Southampton. Following the horrific murder of Henry Nowak, Mr Farage called upon British people to respond with what he described as “pure, cold rage”. He spoke of a two-tier culture and anti-white prejudice. Within hours there was serious disorder in Southampton, and some police officers were injured.

Compare that rhetoric with the recent terrible tragedy near Middlesbrough. Seven people died: five young men travelling in a stolen car and two serving police officers. Every one of those deaths was a tragedy, and my heart goes out to all of their families. Imagine, though: had those five young men been from minority communities, Mr Farage’s reaction would have been very different—but he said nothing. Why? Because it did not fit his political narrative of demonising ethnic minority communities. Social media would have been flooded with claims about immigration, integration and the supposed failure of multicultural Britain.

Crimes must be condemned whoever commits them and victims deserve justice regardless of their colour, but political outrage must not be switched on when the alleged offender belongs to one community and switched off when the circumstances do not fit a political story. That is not responsible leadership. History teaches us that democracy is rarely destroyed overnight but is weakened gradually. When minority communities become convenient scapegoats, when independent institutions are treated with contempt, when misinformation becomes the norm and when political leaders persuade voters that their neighbours are responsible for all their problems, then the foundation of democracy begins to decay.

I make, with caution, a historical comparison: the language used by Reform’s leadership reminds me of the Europe of the 1930s. Racialised language is in danger of becoming normalised in our country. Social media has made the danger even greater. One provocative tweet from the world’s richest man can do untold damage to our community cohesion.

That is why the Bill’s provision on political finance and electronic campaign material matters. Foreign money must not be allowed to buy British political influence. The Electoral Commission must be strengthened. Political parties must be required to know where their donations ultimately originate from.

Immigrants and ethnic minorities are listening to this debate and some are asking themselves: if this rhetoric one day translated into government, what would happen to them? They are our neighbours, doctors, nurses and so on. Britain is their home. We must therefore defend not merely the machinery of democracy but its values: fairness, tolerance, truth and equality before the law. That is why I support the Bill and why I believe this House must remain vigilant against any politics that seeks electoral advantage by turning one group of British people against another.

National Infrastructure Projects: Devolution

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Wednesday 9th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Devolution and infrastructure reform definitely do not remove the role of local communities. For NSIPs, communities and local authorities continue to have opportunities to engage with projects and participate in the examination process. The Government continue to expect applicants for NSIPs, as well as local planning, to undertake meaningful and proportionate engagement. The reforms are about making engagement more effective, not removing it. The aim is to focus consultation on the issues that matter, avoid unnecessary process, and support better quality applications and decisions.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, West Mercia has a police commissioner but no mayor. That area of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin—where I used to be the leader—Herefordshire and Worcestershire is known as a devolution desert. What is the Government’s plan for that particular area? Will we get a mayor or are we to carry on as we have for years?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am always very keen to hear the enthusiasm of friends in Shropshire for the devolution programme, which is moving ahead at pace. Achieving good growth in this country requires a fundamental rewiring of the way the country works and making sure that power that has been held in Westminster and Whitehall is returned to the people and the places where they live, work and invest. This Government’s ambition is to ensure that every area in England, including Shropshire, has or is in the process of establishing a strategic authority by the end of 2027, with strategic authorities in place everywhere by the end of 2028.

Edinburgh Anti-Muslim Attacks

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for those kind words; it is a pleasure to do business with her again. We have set out in our Protecting What Matters strategy clear actions towards more confident, cohesive and resilient communities. We want to protect the UK’s social fabric and strengthen pride, belonging and cohesion. We cannot make people love each other, but it is the Government’s job to help, enable and support people living in communities where people do trust each other. Specifically on extremism, we intend to publish an annual report on the state of extremism as part of Protecting What Matters.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, the Edinburgh incident happened last week. In Belfast the week before that, people were driven out of their homes because they were immigrants. A couple of weeks ago, a Sikh was attacked in the West Midlands; and a couple of months ago, two female Sikhs were raped in their homes—and so on and so forth. People seem to be scapegoating migrants for all their troubles. If they cannot get a house, they blame the migrants; if they cannot get a job, they blame the migrants; if they cannot get a doctor’s appointment, they blame migrants—even though the doctor is a migrant. Is it not about time that the Government did something to really protect migrants, especially the Sikhs, who have been attacked in the West Midlands?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that question. The really important point is that most of the incidents he mentions are crimes, and we want to see the full force of the law used against those crimes. They are not about breakdowns of trust; they are not about attitudes to immigrants; they are crimes, and we want to see the law used to deal with that. If the law needs strengthening, we will strengthen it, as we have on crime and policing. It would be invidious of me to pick on the experiences of individual religious or racial communities—I realise those often converge. However, our first duty as the Government is to enforce the law, and we will.

Antisemitism

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords—

Local Councillors: Recruitment, Retention and Well-being

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Forbes of Newcastle for bringing forward this important debate. It is a subject that matters deeply to me, not only as a politician but as someone from a ethnic minority background who has experienced these issues personally. This is not simply a political matter; it goes to the very heart of our democracy.

I speak not only from my principles but from my personal experience. I have been in politics for more than 30 years, with 22 years as a serving local councillor. I have witnessed at first hand the ugly reality of racial hatred in public life. At an election count, a returning officer would sometimes refuse to show me the spoiled ballot papers because they contained racial abuse directed at me. When I stood for Parliament some years ago, I received numerous racist email messages, and I quote just one of them. It said: “I’m not voting for that rag head”, referring to my turban and my Sikh faith. On another occasion, during an election campaign, a party stake board outside in my garden was vandalised with deeply offensive racial language scrawled all over it.

Despite everything I have experienced, I still firmly believe that politics is a noble profession. Serving the public and my community is the greatest honour of my life. Our democracy depends on ordinary people coming forward to represent their community. We should be encouraging more people from every background to stand for public office, not fewer. But that will only happen if they feel safe, respected and properly protected. Therefore, I ask the Government what steps they will take to strengthen the protection for councillors and candidates to tackle racial abuse, online harassment and intimidation, to ensure that those responsible for such behaviours are properly held to account. We cannot allow hatred and intimidation to become accepted as a part of political life. Our democracy deserves better.

Social Housing Bill [HL]

Lord Sahota Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I am another former council leader. When I was leader of Telford and Wrekin Council in Shropshire, we took a bold and innovative decision to address the growing shortage of good-quality, affordable homes for local people. Rather than simply discussing the housing crisis, we decided to act. We established a wholly owned housing company called Nuplace with a clear and practical purpose to build high-quality homes for rent on council-owned brownfield sites, to regenerate neglected land, to provide homes for local families and at the same time to generate income that would support vital local services. At the time, some questioned whether the council should be involved directly in housing delivery in this way.

However, I am proud to say that the result has more than justified our decision. So far, around 1,000 homes have been built or are in the process of being completed in the near future through this scheme. Tenant demand has remained constantly high, which demonstrates the real need for well-managed, affordable rental homes. Approximately 25 acres of previously underused derelict land has been regenerated, transforming eyesores into thriving communities. Our policy focused on delivering high-standard, energy-efficient properties that local people are proud to live in. I am told that the tenant satisfaction rate remains at around 96%, which is a remarkable achievement by any standard.

The financial benefits have also been substantial—this is some years ago in Telford and Wrekin when I was leader of the council. The scheme has generated more than £8 million in net income for the council, alongside more than £3 million through council tax receipts and new homes bonus funding. At a time when councils across the country were facing severe financial pressures, our innovative housing policy both met social needs and strengthened our council finances. Although I am no longer with Telford and Wrekin Council, I am told that the scheme continues to perform strongly with high demand.

Does my noble friend the Minister agree that councils across the country should seriously examine models such as that of Telford and Wrekin Council? It is not a complete solution to the national housing shortage, but it is certainly a part of the answer. This approach delivers multiple public benefits simultaneously. It increases housing supply, regenerates brownfield land, improves the local environment, creates construction jobs and apprenticeships, supports local economic growth, provides secure homes for working families and generates long-term revenue streams for local authorities. It also demonstrates something very important: that local authorities, when given the freedom and confidence to innovate, can become active partners in solving national problems rather than just waiting for a diktat from central government.

At a time when housing pressure continues to affect so many families, particularly young people and key workers, we should encourage practical, locally driven solutions that combine social purpose with financial sustainability. I hope the Government will continue to support councils that are prepared to take this kind of ambitious and entrepreneurial approach to local housing policies.

Local Government Pension Fund

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The Fit for the Future reforms do not seek to undermine the fiduciary duty of local pension funds in any way. The responsibility to set investment strategies—the key driver of investment returns—remains with the funds, making sure that they retain local accountability. New LGPS regulations will continue to require administering authorities to include preferences on environmental, social and governance factors in their investment strategies.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the Government on planning to reintroduce the pension scheme for local councillors, which was abolished in 2015 by the noble Lord, Lord Pickles, when he was the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in the other place. Thousands of councillors lost their pensions. Does my noble friend the Minister agree with me that the noble Lord should apologise to all those councillors, of all political parties, for the loss of their pensions?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We took a different view from the previous policy, and I think that was the right thing to do. Many local councillors will potentially give up many hours of their working life to undertake their duties. It is absolutely right that they should be eligible for the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Local Resilience Forums

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 16th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises a very interesting question. I do not have a direct answer for him but, having been through the process of being the leader of a local authority during the Covid period I pay tribute, first, to the voluntary and third sectors, which absolutely stepped up during that period, and, secondly, to colleagues in the services who also supported what both local government and national government were doing. We need to think very hard about where we are going to need significant resources and how those will be co-ordinated and arranged. I am sure that the 2027 review of the Civil Contingencies Act will take great consideration of the kind of issues the noble Lord has raised.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, the West Mercia area has an elected police commissioner at the moment, but we have no elected mayor in Hereford and Shopshire. What is the Government’s plan for devolution here? Will we be offered a mayoral deal to run the police?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The local government reorganisation and devolution programme is still ongoing, as I am sure my noble friend will be aware. It is the Government’s intention that when police and crime commissioners come to the end of their terms, there will be mayors in place to take over their duties. We will be making announcements towards the summer in response to all the proposals that have come in for the rest of the country where announcements have not already been made.

Local Government Reorganisation

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I very much agree with what the noble Baroness says about encouraging people to get engaged with local elections and with their local authorities. We take local people’s views very seriously. Community engagement and neighbourhood empowerment are both part of our criteria for judging the proposals on new councils, and new councils, like current councils, must listen to their communities and deliver genuine opportunities for people to shape the neighbourhoods where they live, because people generally judge their well-being by what they see when they walk out of their front door. We are determined that communities should have their say in the future of public services, so we have gone through an extensive consultation process and we have made sure that, as we judge the proposals put forward, the authorities putting forward those proposals have done that as well.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, in 2015, the previous Government abolished the pension for local councillors— I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Pickles, was responsible for that. Do the Government have any plan to reintroduce the pension for councillors?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am delighted to tell my noble friend that the Government are bringing back pensions for local councillors. It is very important that they do that; local councillors provide outstanding service for their communities and many of them have to give up considerable aspects of their working life to do so. I am delighted that this Government see the value of that and have brought back pensions for councillors.

Donations to Political Parties

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I rise with a profound sense of responsibility because the issue before us goes to the very heart of our constitutional settlement: the integrity of our democracy. At the moment there is a growing and deeply troubling perception that British democracy is simply on sale to the highest bidder. That perception alone should alarm us all. We are witnessing donations whose true origins are unclear and that are rooted through opaque structures, sometimes linked to foreign interests and are too often beyond the effective scrutiny of the regulator. This is not a theoretical concern; it is a present and pressing danger. The principle is simple: decisions about the future of the United Kingdom should be made by the British people, not shaped by unknown donors, overseas interests or hidden financial powers.

Democracy is about equality of voice, not inequality of wealth. The Committee on Standards in Public Life has recommended a cap of £10,000 on donations to political parties. Such a cap would not stifle political participation; it would protect it. It would ensure that political parties are funded by broad public support rather than a narrow group of wealthy benefactors.

The integrity of our democracy is at stake. The United Kingdom is respected around the world as a beacon of democratic governance, often described, rightly or wrongly, as the mother of all democracies. That reputation has been earned over the centuries through reform, restraint and a shared commitment to fairness and accountability. It must not be squandered now. Democracy cannot be treated as a commodity traded to the highest bidder. It is a trust handed down to us and held on behalf of future generations. Safeguarding requires courage, transparency and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths. This House has a duty to act. If we fail to strengthen our law on political donations, we risk allowing money to speak louder than the citizen. We cannot and must not take that risk.