The Lord Lexden OBE
Conservative
Member of the House of Lords
M
Lord Lexden's full title is The Lord Lexden OBE. His name is Alistair Basil Cooke, and he is a current member of the House of Lords.
Allowance claims · 2026
Data not yet released for 2026 — the Lords Finance Office publishes monthly CSVs ~6-8 weeks after month-end.
Lords votes · 2026
162 divisions
2 Content(1.2%)
0 Not-Content(0.0%)
160 didn't vote(98.8%)
2026-01-05
Content
168–178
Not-Content
2026-01-05
Content
210–131
Content
Source: lordsvotes-api.parliament.uk. "Result" shows the headline
Content vs Not-Content tally (including tellers). The Lords doesn't
publish a "didn't vote" attendance roll like the Commons, so the
figure above conflates absence with abstention.
Recent Hansard contributions · latest 25
2025-12-10
Northern Ireland Troubles: Operation Kenova
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Caine and others have referred to the uncomfortable reading in this report. Can the Minister confirm unequivocally that the regime for handling agents is today utterly different from that which obtained when most of the eve
2025-11-25
Schools: Funding
My Lords, how are the Government getting on with recruiting the 6,500 extra teachers for which their iniquitous, unprecedented education tax is designed to pay? Is it not the case that the total number of teachers is going down, not up?
2025-10-20
Northern Ireland Troubles
My Lords, I have one specific question in relation to the proposal in paragraph 6 of the joint framework to replace the existing Commissioner for Investigations with two co-directors for investigations, one of whom must have experience outside Northern I
2025-10-16
Fracture Liaison Services
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Black is, thankfully, a persistent person. The subject we are discussing today is one that he has brought before your Lordships with some frequency, through debates and Oral Questions. Those who suffer the pain and distress
2025-10-13
School Fees: VAT
My Lords, have the Government noted a recent detailed survey by the Independent Schools Council which shows that their appalling education tax is producing an exodus from independent schools eight times larger than Ministers predicted? Does it not follow
2025-10-13
School Fees: VAT
My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I declare my interest as a former general secretary of the Independent Schools Council and the current president of one of its constituent bodies.
2025-10-13
School Fees: VAT
To ask His Majesty’s Government how much money has been raised from the imposition of value added tax on school fees.
2025-09-10
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My amendments are different from those of the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, and narrow in scope. I refer to my Amendments 429 and 433, which relate to independent schools and which I have brought forward in close association with my noble friend Lord
2025-09-08
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
My Lords, the question was posed by my noble friend Lord Jackson—and touched on by, I think, my noble friend Lord Harper—as to why Irish citizens are not deported. The answer lies in the Ireland Act 1949, which was passed by this Parliament when the Iris
2025-06-25
Independent Schools: Tax Changes
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the removal of the VAT exemption and other recent tax changes on independent schools.
2025-05-12
Renters’ Rights Bill
My Lords, I am glad, as always, to support my noble friend Lord Black, whose commitment to animal welfare is well known. His proposed new clause and his amendments in this group represent a further stage of his determined efforts on behalf of beloved pet
2025-05-06
Renters’ Rights Bill
I am always glad to support my noble friend Lord Black, with whom I have worked closely on many subjects over many years. Long ago, when we were both in the Conservative research department during a general election campaign, we circulated a briefing not
2025-04-30
LGBT Veterans: Financial Recognition Scheme
My Lords, is it not imperative that we never forget the many brave members of our armed services whose careers were destroyed and whose lives were broken before the year 2000, simply because they were LGBT? Is not the financial recognition scheme of the
2025-04-30
LGBT Veterans: Financial Recognition Scheme
To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in implementing the LGBT Veterans Financial Recognition Scheme announced on 12 December 2024.
My Lords, I will say a few words about independent schools. Throughout, the Government’s position has been in essence that we have to take away—they say—some of the resources of 7% of our country’s schools to enable 93% to make improvements. State school
Will the Minister confirm clearly that, through this measure, the country will obtain, for the first time ever, a two-tier charitable system? That is what he appeared to accept. This must be thoroughly undesirable. To remove a set of arrangements that in
My Lords, in accordance with the custom, I thank all those who have spoken in favour of the amendments in this group. A powerful case has been made for exempting independent schools with charitable status in respect of certain parts of the valuable work
My Lords, Amendment 25 has the support of my noble friend Lord Black of Brentwood. We are both profoundly conscious of the importance of the contribution the independent sector of education makes to providing for children with special educational needs a
2025-03-13
Independent School Fees: VAT
My Lords, what are the Government to say to the mother of a child with special needs whose independent school is closing because of their education tax? She writes to me: “Shell-shocked does not cover it. My child is autistic. State secondary was an utte
2025-03-13
Independent School Fees: VAT
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and declare my interest as president of the Independent Schools Association, whose 700 members—mainly small schools—are now at serious risk of damage or closure.
2025-03-13
Independent School Fees: VAT
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the results of imposing value added tax on independent school fees on 1 January.
The Minister has spoken at length about the Government’s hopes, intentions and plans. Surely, having done all that, it becomes more important to find out what happens in reality over the next few years: how independent schools are affected and how many c
My Lords, I will add briefly to the powerful comments that my noble friend Lord Black just made on Amendments 69A and 69B, to which I have added my name, in order to pay tribute to the achievements of our country’s excellent boarding schools, which have
My Lords, please forgive me: I forgot to make a declaration of interest at the outset. I am a former general secretary of the Independent Schools Council and the current president of the Independent Schools Association, which consists of 700 schools—main
Source: hansard.parliament.uk via hansard-api. Snippets shown
verbatim from the search API; click any debate title for the full record.
Register of Interests · 1 entries on file
Declarations under the Lords Code of Conduct. Free text — no monetary values, no hours worked. A declaration that an interest exists, not a claim about its size.
Nil
-
No registrable interests
registered 2025-04-07
Source: UK Parliament Members API (Lords register). Refreshed weekly.
Read the full
Lords Code of Conduct
for what each category covers and the disclosure thresholds.
Party history
2010-12-23 → present
Conservative
current
Government posts
None recorded.
Opposition posts
None recorded.
Committee memberships
2012-05-16 → 2015-03-30
Constitution Committee
2017-07-19 → 2019-07-01
Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee)
2015-06-17 → 2017-04-27
Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee)
2017-07-10 → 2021-09-16
Ecclesiastical Committee
2019-06-13 → 2020-06-22
Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 Committee
2019-09-09 → 2020-04-23
EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee
2020-04-23 → 2021-03-31
EU Security and Justice Sub-Committee
2023-01-31 → 2023-11-23
Education for 11–16 Year Olds Committee
2024-01-16 → 2024-05-30
Windsor Framework Sub-Committee
2025-01-30 → present
Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee
Contact
Parliamentary office
lexdena@parliament.uk
020 7219 8216 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
020 7219 8216 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
APPGs (2026) · 1 active officership(s)
| Group | Role(s) | Funders | Officers in group | Next deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on West Papua
Country, Area or Region Group
|
Vice Chair | — | 4 | 2027-01-10 |
One row per active APPG. Funder names link out via the
/appgs Top secretariat funders panel — click any funder
there to open its full relationship graph. Officer matching is name-based against
the parliament.uk register text and may miss titled / hyphenated variants.
Written parliamentary questions · 2026
No written questions tabled in 2026.
Bills sponsored & supported · 2026
0 bills
0 as lead sponsor
0 as supporter
No bills sponsored or supported in 2026.
Source: UK Parliament Bills API. "Lead" sponsor is the
primary mover (sortOrder = 1); "Supporter" rows are
members of either House who
backed the bill at introduction. Year is the bill's first-reading
date.
Historic bills (all-time)
4 bills
4 as lead sponsor
0 as supporter
| Bill | Info | Role | Status | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (Amendment) (Siblings) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 1st reading | 2022-07-07 | |
| Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (Amendment) (Siblings) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 2nd reading | 2020-01-14 | |
| Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Amendment) (Sibling Couples) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 2nd reading | 2017-07-03 | |
| Direct Planning (Pilot) Bill [HL] | Sponsored | 2nd reading | 2015-06-03 |
Same source as the year-scoped panel above, but unconstrained by
year. The "Sponsored" tag = lead sponsor; "Supported" = backed at
introduction. Sorted newest first.