LONDON — Britain’s new Labour government campaigned on a promise to deliver bold change at modest cost. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will have a chance to show how he intends to reconcile those two goals on Wednesday, when the government announces its plans for the year ahead.
Starmer said the measures announced in the king’s speech to parliament would “bring relief to Britain” and “create wealth for people across the country” by boosting economic growth.
The King’s Speech is the centrepiece of the State Opening of Parliament, an occasion where royal pomp meets hard politics, as King Charles III dons a diamond-encrusted crown, sits on a gilded throne and announces the government’s legislative programme.
Starmer said the speech would be a “down payment on our plans for the next five years”, which are aimed at delivering strong growth to the struggling UK economy.
Labour won a landslide victory in the July 4 election as voters turned against the Conservatives after years of high inflation, ethics scandals and changing prime ministers. Starmer has promised to fix the country’s aging infrastructure and crumbling public services, but has said he will not raise income taxes and insisted that change must be tied to “unbreakable fiscal rules.”
The government said Wednesday’s speech would include more than 35 bills – the Conservatives’ last speech had just 21 – ranging from housebuilding to nationalising Britain’s railways and decarbonising the country’s electricity supply with a state-owned green energy company.
“It looks like a very ambitious and very large-scale project,” said Jill Rutter, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Government think tank.
There will be moves to give more powers to local authorities and legislation will ensure that all government budgets are subject to independent scrutiny beforehand. Rutter has called the bill the “anti-Liz Truss bill”, referring to the Conservative prime minister whose unfunded tax cuts in 2022 have devastated the UK economy and ended her short-lived premiership.
Further measures to tighten border security are also expected, after Starmer scrapped the Conservatives’ plan to send people arriving in the UK across the Channel on a one-way trip to Rwanda. The controversial plan has been the subject of multiple legal challenges and has cost the UK hundreds of millions of pounds, without a single flight taking off.
A law regulating the development of artificial intelligence is also expected, which could represent a break from the previous government’s light-handed approach to AI governance.
The government could also announce major changes to the British political system, including lowering the voting age from 18 to 16, one of the Labour Party’s election promises.
Parliament could even tackle an issue that has vexed previous governments: reforming the House of Lords. The unelected upper house of parliament has nearly 800 members, largely political appointees for life, with a handful of judges, bishops and hereditary aristocrats. Starmer has said he would like to abolish hereditary nobles and set the retirement age for Lords at 80.
Although much of Starmer’s agenda marks a break with former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s defeated Conservative government, Starmer could revive Sunak’s plan to stop future generations smoking by gradually raising the minimum age to buy tobacco.
Wednesday’s speech is the second such address by Charles since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022. For all its royal trappings – including lords in ermine-trimmed robes and an official known as the Black Rod – it is the King’s Speech in name only.
“The king has no power in this matter,” Rutter said.
