Contribution
My Lords, I was unable to join your Lordships at Second Reading and have decided to add my name, and speak, only to amendments on areas where I have relevant knowledge. I speak as somebody who has for a number of years been a co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf, and also led the first ever debate on sportswashing in your Lordships’ House in March of this year. Therefore, I will speak in favour of the amendments I have added my name to—Amendment 185 and in particular Amendment 193 from my noble friend Lord McNally, who cannot be here in his place today. I also strongly support Amendment 200 on state entities.
It is interesting listening to the noble Lord, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, and other noble Lords talk about human rights and the Human Rights Act. Let us be clear. What the regulator will be doing here is having a statutory responsibility for ensuring that a takeover of a club takes into consideration human rights issues. Under the Human Rights Act an individual can bring a case based on their feeling that their human rights have been undermined. If you are in Saudi Arabia, Qatar or the UAE, you cannot bring that case as an individual whose human rights have been undermined, particularly when it comes to a state entity potentially taking over a football club. That is what these amendments are about. Rather than just financial issues, when it comes to a takeover of a club, as a statutory point of principle human rights should be looked at by the regulator independently to decide whether a potential director is a fit and proper person to be able to take over and manage an English football club. That is what this debate is about.
It is interesting that certain issues in the Bill are specific, such as money laundering, so the Government have accepted that the regulator can look at specific issues. These amendments ask that another area specified in the Bill should be human rights abuses carried out not just in the UK but elsewhere in the world, particularly when it is a state entity or an individual linked to a state entity. The reason why this is important is that the concept of sportswashing, where sports clubs are bought particularly to try to influence soft power, is really taking hold. The previous Government understood that when it came to taking over media in this country. There was an issue to do with how state-entity organisations, including their potential human rights abuses, actually stopped takeover of the media.
I am sure that the Minister, when it comes to arguing the Government’s case if they are not minded to do this, will look at the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 as the cloak of respectability, where the powers already exist for this to be looked at. Well, let us be clear. These were introduced with the aim of holding individuals and entities accountable for human rights abuses. However, these regulations are not proving efficient in stopping foreign Government entities from owning Premier League clubs, or any league club. The Newcastle deal, where the Saudi Public Investment Fund took over Newcastle, happened 15 months after these regulations came into force.
These regulations target individuals and specific entities, not entire Governments or sovereign wealth funds. This is a critical loophole which we can see in the case of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which now owns Newcastle United and operates a state-controlled entity that presents itself as independent of government. As a result, it evades direct scrutiny under the sanctions framework. There is also a lack of transparency with these regulations, because decisions about who we sanction are not clear and are at the whim of an individual Minister. That is why I believe there should be the provisions in the Bill laid down in Amendment 200 and the other amendments which I put my name to.
The Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations lack the reach and enforcement power to prevent foreign state entities linked to human rights abuses owning English Premier League clubs. That is why these amendments are required. Otherwise, I believe that our national game, football, will potentially remain a platform for authoritarian regimes or individuals who have committed human rights abuses and will be used as a sportswashing exercise that will tarnish their own reputations and image and not defend our national game.