The Lord Bishop of Manchester

My Lords, I added my name to this amendment. I am grateful for the powerful speeches from the noble Baronesses, Lady Thornhill and Lady Lister of Burtersett. They have left me with little to say, except that the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, has given me a cue with her words about the repentant sinner. I will take us even further back in history to the book of Genesis and the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham argues with God against the destruction of the cities, and God agrees that he will not destroy the cities if only 10 people can be found who are righteous. The principle that established, which passes down into our present law, is that it is better to let the guilty off than for the innocent to be punished. That is what this particular amendment is about, because the people who are suffering are not the guilty few who may be here illegally and should not be here; they are the many people from minority ethnic backgrounds who just do not get a look-in because landlords play it safe. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, referred to that when she introduced the debate. That is the problem. If we do not get rid of this pernicious bit of legislation, we will continue to see innocent people who, just because they have a different skin colour to my own, suffer because landlords will not let them properties just on the off-chance that there might be something not quite right in their paperwork. So I do not believe that the right-to-rent Act can be reformed, and I support this amendment.