Baroness Harris of Richmond (LD) [V]

My Lords, I am speaking to the amendments in this group on behalf of these Benches and, in doing so, I confirm the strong support we expressed at Second Reading for the Bill. There was a sense of outrage when President Trump attempted to squeeze an agreement for the extraction of rare minerals out of Ukraine without payment. His argument was that capital and equipment sent to Ukraine by Congress under the leadership of President Biden was not a grant, as had previously been thought, but a loan. That is the outrage felt in Wales when its natural assets are exploited without any benefit to the people of Wales. At Second Reading, the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, referred to the flooding of Tryweryn and the political consequences that followed, including, very probably, his presence in this House. The purpose of the Conservative amendments is to ensure that none of the assets or income of the Crown Estate in Wales, whether property rights in land or the highly valuable rights in relation to the Welsh zone, should fall under the control of the Senedd or its Ministers. Rents and profits should whizz up the motorway to lodge in the Treasury as they always have, even when it was called Watling Street. Perish the thought that some Welshman, in the tradition of Owain Glyndŵr, would get his hands on the loot. You might call that the Conservative principle.