Nottingham Incident

Debate between Lord Sharpe of Epsom and Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Thursday 15th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

I of course agree with the noble Lord. The impact on victims and their families is obviously the same, whatever the reason the suspect did what they did—I do not know the answer to that and I cannot speculate. However, the police should of course thoroughly investigate this incident and get to the bottom of exactly what happened, because obviously, that will be of use in informing future decisions and so on.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I had not intended to contribute to this Statement, but I would like to thank my noble friend the Minister for giving us the chance to talk about it.

We all have a political hinterland, and mine very much includes Nottingham—it is a political place for me. I spent a lot of my time there and in 1979 I was the candidate for the European election in Nottingham. I narrowly lost, so I do not have the proud hinterland the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, has of having represented the people of that city. I know that it is not a problem city—thank goodness it is not—but it is very sad that such an incident has occurred. It shows how a strong community can respond to such situations, and it reinforces the view, which I think all of us in politics share, wherever we sit in this House and wherever we speak from, that we want to build strong communities that can withstand grief, sadness, shock, horror: all the things that have come through this incident.

I thank my noble friend for giving us the chance, through this Statement, to say these things.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for that. He may not have been elected to represent the people of Nottingham, but he does so very well now.