Logo Assembly Logo Hemicycle

Lord Don TOUHIG (United Kingdom, SOC)

Photo member

Representative
Member of the House of Lords
Labour

House of Lords
GB - SW1A 0PW - London
United Kingdom

Working language: English

Declarations of interests:
2025 , 2024 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018

Mandates

In the political groups

  • Vice-Chairperson: Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group since 03/02/2025
  • Member: Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group since 15/04/2024
  • Member: Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group from 24/11/2017 to 03/06/2020

In the Assembly

  • since 29/11/2024 Representative - United Kingdom
  • from 15/04/2024 to 28/11/2024 Substitute - United Kingdom
  • from 24/11/2017 to 03/06/2020 Substitute - United Kingdom

In the committee(s) and sub-committee(s)

  • Full Member: Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (since 27/01/2025)
  • Member: Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) (since 27/01/2025)
  • Vice-President of the Assembly: Bureau of the Assembly (since 27/01/2025)
  • Vice-President of the Assembly: Standing Committee (since 27/01/2025)
  • Third Vice-Chairperson: Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (since 27/01/2025)
  • Full Member: Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (since 29/11/2024)
  • Chairperson of national delegation: Standing Committee (since 25/11/2024)
  • Full Member: Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (from 15/04/2024 to 28/11/2024)
  • Chairperson: Sub-Committee on Children (from 30/01/2020 to 03/06/2020)
  • Full Member: Sub-Committee on Children (from 28/01/2020 to 03/06/2020)
  • Alternate of Lord Andrew ADONIS (Full Member): Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (from 15/04/2024 to 28/11/2024)
  • Alternate of Mr John PRESCOTT (Full Member): Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (from 24/11/2017 to 03/06/2020)
  • Alternate of Baroness Doreen E. MASSEY (Full Member): Sub-Committee on Children (from 24/01/2018 to 27/01/2020)
  • Alternate of Mr John PRESCOTT (Full Member): Sub-Committee on Public Health and Sustainable Development (from 06/12/2017 to 23/01/2018)

Interventions

Last speeches

29/01/2025 | 17:18:19 President, I believe that this is a very important issue, and a decision to approve or not approve the delegation credentials from Georgia should not be taken lightly. These past days, I've listened to arguments on both sides, and as a rule, I'm a person who believes it's better that people are in rather than have them out. But having met representatives of Georgian opposition groups and also listened to the report from my colleague Lord David BLENCATHRA, who is an observer at the Georgian... 01/10/2024 | 16:33:17 President, few of us sitting in this Chamber today would disagree that our most precious gifts are our children. They're our future. We love them, we cherish them, we care for them. And yet countless numbers of refugee and migrant children go missing across Europe every year. As Mr Julian PAHLKE points out in his report, his excellent report, all too often, the plight of these missing children goes unreported, while their vulnerability and exploitation to abuse by criminals is extremely high... 01/10/2024 | 13:03:13 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Our best defence against the enemies of freedom and free speech is our free press. I spent 27 years of my life working in newspapers and in those three decades I saw more and more challenges to that freedom. And now another three decades further on, I see governments around the world including some phere too in Europe, controlling and wanting to control the press. State actors are investing heavily in the media in order to own and control it... 26/06/2024 | 12:52:58 Colleagues, Vladimir Putin's act of aggression against Ukraine has not been witnessed in Europe since the early part of the last century. The invasion of Ukraine followed the most duplicitous act when Putin declared he had no intention of attacking that country almost at the time his troops crossed the border. The free and democratic nations of Europe must stand with the Ukrainian people against this aggression – this tyranny. A tyranny which has taken a free, liberated, newly democratic and... 25/06/2024 | 13:11:08 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) My friend and colleague and a greatly valued member of this Assembly—the late Baroness Doreen Massey—was a passionate advocate of involving young people in the work of this body. When I first became a member of this Council of Europe in November 2017, Doreen took me under her wing and she became my mentor. We had much in common in that we were both strongly argued that we had a duty to hand on the values of this Council of Europe to the young...

Activities