Tributes

Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Lords Chamber

Finally, I join the Government Chief Whip in paying tribute to the usual channels. Contrary to appearances sometimes, we work very well together. I mentioned at this Dispatch Box last year the Government Chief Whip’s lack of biscuit provision in meetings, which has continued. It has done something for my waistline, but nothing to dint the usual operation of the usual channels. I wish all staff and noble Lords a very happy Christmas, and I look forward to working with everyone in the new year.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

My Lords, in continuing these staff tributes from the Liberal Democrat Benches, I want to talk about three individuals. First, Ola Diya was a valued member of the housekeeping team. She spent just under 20 years as an early housekeeper, starting in Millbank House with the cleaning contractors and then later transferring to the in-house team, cleaning high-profile areas of the House of Lords, including the first floor offices of the West Front, and covering duties in the Chamber and the Royal Gallery. Housekeepers are vital to the functioning of the House, and the House thanks Ola for her hard work over two decades. She retired in September to spend more time with her family overseas. We wish her all health and happiness.

Secondly, Nicholas Beach retired as deputy counsel to the Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords at the end of October, after a remarkable 40-year career as a lawyer in Whitehall and Westminster. Nick joined the counsel’s office in the House of Lords in 2010, with 25 years’ experience as a government lawyer in the Treasury Solicitor’s Department, the Department for Education, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He came to us with a well-deserved reputation as a public law expert, with an enviable reputation as a drafter of statutory instruments. This expertise has been put to very effective use over the last 15 years, particularly in the House’s scrutiny of delegated powers in Bills and of statutory instruments.

The burden of scrutinising secondary legislation grew considerably during the Brexit and pandemic years. Nick rose admirably to the challenge, with quiet professionalism of the highest order, combined with his trademark patience and good humour. Nick also spent many years advising on the legal aspects of restoration and renewal. He assisted with the transfer of the Parliamentary Archives to the National Archives at Kew, and he advised the archives on the loan to Parliament, in 2015, of the four original copies of Magna Carta. Nick could always be relied upon to keep cool in a crisis, and this ability will be put to good use in his retirement. He hopes to become an expert ice cream maker as well as a cake baker. We wish him all the best in these ventures and all health and happiness in retirement.

Finally, Amanda McGrath is retiring on 31 December, after 13 years as a committee assistant and, later, a committee operations officer in the Lords Committee Office. During her career in the Lords, Amanda developed a specialism working for several sub-committees of the former European Union Committee, including the Home Affairs Sub-Committee, the Justice Sub-Committee, and the Security and Justice Sub-Committee. She has been a committee operations officer for the Justice and Home Affairs Committee since it was established in 2021, guiding it through several high-profile inquiries and handling a high volume of sensitive evidence. She has organised many committee visits, including the Justice and Home Affairs Committee visits to His Majesty’s Prisons Belmarsh and Isis—and getting the committee out again—the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel, and the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras. Before joining the Committee Office, Amanda was a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence. She is planning a number of projects in retirement and will spend more time travelling and at the theatre. We wish her all the best and all health and happiness.

I join in the tributes to my colleagues in the usual channels and the House at large. As we near the Christmas Recess, I take this opportunity from these Benches to wish everyone, Members and staff, a very happy Christmas, a good rest over the two and a half weeks and all the best for the new year.

[The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)]

My Lords, I associate myself with all the warm comments made by my fellow members of the usual channels about the staff of the House. I note the kindness, the courtesy and the huge help that those staff provide to Cross-Bench and all Members, and I am very grateful. Before I pay tribute to four very special colleagues, I reflect particularly on the moment in March of the confetti in the Chamber, when protesters interrupted our proceedings by throwing leaflets from the gallery. Our doorkeepers ushered them away, clutching as they were leaflets that called for “aristocrats out, nurses in”. I felt that my noble friend Lady Watkins came very close to declaring a conflict. But, thanks to the skill of the doorkeepers, we were back up and running in just four minutes. We owe a great debt and give great thanks to our doorkeepers, and their head doorkeeper John Ingram. I for one am very grateful for them.

My first tribute is to David Prior. David worked in the Parliamentary Archives, joining in April 1992 as the assistant clerk of the records, a role latterly not so snappily renamed head of public services and outreach. He has transformed the way in which our archives are presented to the public, through many exhibitions, large and small. He oversaw loans such as the Stamp Act 1765, which went to the USA; this was the legislation that gave rise to the cry, “No taxation without representation”, giving great succour to the independence movement over there. He arranged for the Articles of Union between England and Scotland, and the Act of Union 1707, to be displayed at the Scottish Parliament in 2007, which was the tercentenary. Most remarkably, David arranged for the four inward loans for the four surviving Magna Cartas, which were displayed in the Robing Room in February 2015, a task that others observed was more complex than organising a western Balkans conference. I have not mentioned his technological thrust in bringing the archive to our public, for which I hope he will forgive me. I thank him for all 33 years and wish him well.

Mary Nottingham and Mandy Marks retired as senior internal auditors in September. Mary and Mandy met when working for the Ministry of Defence internal audit department, and while Mary moved to the House some time before Mandy, the role they took on when Mandy arrived was quickly adapted so that they were a job share. They brought great audit experience to the Lords team, with humour and professionalism and no hint of sinister purpose, an approach that was much appreciated by all whom they worked with during their parliamentary careers. They were consummate team players. That is not to say they did not have strong opinions, as their colleagues recall: their head of section observed that they were masters of upwards management, always done with such charming subtlety that to this day he was never entirely sure whether he was managing them or they were managing him. I think we know the answer. Mary and Mandy will take their opinions on that question into a long and very well-earned retirement, which I understand will include visits to Cyprus, where they both used to own homes. They were wonderful colleagues and respected professionals, and we are all very grateful to them for their contribution to the House.

Finally, I pay tribute to one of our greatest generals in our longest-running war. I speak, of course, of the war against moth and mouse. Maureen Shoults led the early-morning sorties on the front line of the Principal Floor corridor for 27 years before retiring in November. She started as a housekeeper, was promoted to a team leader and latterly had a team of 15 housekeepers. Her particular personal theatre of battle was the bit of the Principal Floor corridor that included the Cross-Bench offices. While we try to lock away our admittedly plentiful rations of crumbly shortbread, we have been guilty of providing sustenance for the enemy. Despite this, and the early hour when I tended to run across her, she always greeted me and indeed all our staff and those who met her with a smile and a kind word. She will now spend more time with her children, Ben and Wayne, and her grandchildren, Finley and Fiona. We wish her all the best, and we will all keep fighting the great war on her behalf.

It remains only for me to thank my fellow usual channels. I cannot tell your Lordships how generous they are constantly to the Cross Bench in all sorts of little ways, and I and the Cross Bench are all very grateful to them. I have to say that it is very good fun in the usual channels. I would take issue about the biscuits, because there was a metre-long lot of biscuits with the Chief Whip—a lot of Jaffa cakes at one point—and we are hoping to get more of those in there. But it is in a great spirit that we try to make sure that things work in the House, and I pay tribute to them.

With that said, the only remaining thing is to wish, on behalf of our Benches, everybody, Members and staff, a very happy Christmas.