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Tributes to the late Lord Belstead

My Lords, on the behalf of the Cross Bench Peers, I should like to join in the tributes to the late Lord Belstead. The Cross Bench Peers have always appreciated the role of the Leader of the House, which transcends a political role and represents also a voice for the House as a whole. Lord Belstead fulfilled this role with distinction, both as Deputy Leader for four years and as Leader of the House and Lord Privy Seal for a further period between 1987 and 1990. I was a senior official in the Cabinet Office for part of this time and I know the esteem with which Lord Belstead was regarded by his political colleagues and, if it is a compliment, by senior officials. In addition to his role in the House of Lords which we remember today, I pay tribute to him for his capacity, during a long political career in high office, to master difficult issues and briefs at the Department of Education and Science, the Northern Ireland Office, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. That pretty well covers the whole of public life and he covered all those issues with distinction. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food may be a somewhat unloved department, although not by me because I am an old boy of that ministry. I worked there when I was young and I stress how difficult some of the problems were. I remember personally and salute Lord Belstead’s work there. But, first and foremost in the House today, I pay tribute from all the Cross-Benchers to a former Leader of the House who will be greatly missed.