Starmer pledges to ‘repair the foundations’ of the country in Labour’s King’s Speech | Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer has pledged to “repair the foundations” of the country in the long term by boosting economic growth with energy and planning reforms in Labour’s first King’s Speech in a decade and a half.

The new prime minister said the government would need “patient work and serious solutions” to restore trust in British politics and rebuild the country, with 40 bills in the government’s new legislative programme.

The plans would also help counter the “sneaky allure of populism,” he told lawmakers, as his new administration tries to find a response to the rise of the populist right.

Addressing MPs, Starmer said his government would “turn the page on an era when politics was a noisy performance and return it to public service and begin the work of rebuilding our country”.

He said the administration had already “found new and unexpected traces of its chaos – the scars of the last 14 years, when politics was put above the national interest, and the decay deep in the marrow of our institutions.”

But at the heart of his plans, he said, were measures to “take the brakes off” Britain and start growing the economy, which he said was just the start of what he promised would be a lasting transformation.

“The era of performance-driven politics and self-interest at the expense of service is over,” he told MPs. “The challenges we face require determined, patient work and serious solutions, rather than the temptation of the easy way out.”

Almost immediately, ministers will publish a bill to nationalise the ailing railways, bringing franchises back into state ownership when contracts expire, in a bid to improve performance and productivity.

In a matter of weeks, the government will begin a radical overhaul of the planning system, after Starmer promised his party would be “builders, not blockers”, reversing the previous government’s de facto ban on onshore wind farms.

Local councils will have to adopt mandatory housing targets in the coming months under new planning reforms, relaxed by the Conservatives last year under pressure from backbenchers, and work together to identify regional infrastructure needs to prevent individual authorities blocking plans.

A new workers’ rights law is set to come into force within 100 days. It will ban fixed-term contracts unless the employee requests them, as well as most “fire and rehire” practices – although unions have complained that some aspects have been watered down after lobbying by companies.

It will grant workers rights such as maternity leave and sick pay from day one of employment, making flexible working the norm, and simplify the process of recognising unions. Labour will also repeal the last government’s controversial anti-strike laws.

A bill will be introduced to create Great British Energy (GBE), another election promise, with £8.3bn of public money over the course of the parliament, defining in law for the first time that it will be an energy production company rather than simply an investment vehicle.

The industry had feared Labour would backtrack on GBE’s plan to develop and own assets. The company is expected to be headquartered in Scotland and will own, manage and operate clean energy projects.

The National Wealth Fund Bill will set out one of the government’s major wealth creation efforts, a £7.3bn capitalised fund to spread investments, while a proposed English devolution bill will give more powers to local decision-makers.

However, other bills will be designed to make a material difference to people’s daily lives, which Number 10 hopes will help combat the rise of right-wing populism and restore trust in politics.

Starmer said of his manifesto: “In this complex and volatile world, this is a rejection of those who can only offer the easy answer, the allure of populism. As the last 14 years have shown, that path is a dead end for this country.”

The bills include interventionist measures on public health and anti-social behaviour, such as restrictions on the sale and flavouring of e-cigarettes, a complete and phased ban on tobacco smoking, a ban on some junk food adverts, new “compliance orders” targeting persistent anti-social behaviour, and direct powers to tackle the use of noisy dirt bikes on the streets.

After a heated election debate over immigration, the government will create a new border security command and introduce tougher penalties for migrant smuggling gangs as part of efforts to curb the Channel crossing. The government has also confirmed it could stop paying Rwanda £100m to end the deportation programme.

The King’s Speech, however, failed to commit to lifting the highly unpopular child benefit cap for two-year-olds, despite intense pressure from Labour MPs. In an apparent attempt to calm the anger, Liz Kendall, the welfare minister, launched a new government taskforce to develop a strategy to tackle child poverty.

However, there will be a focus on child welfare with breakfast clubs for all primary school pupils, a limit on expensive school uniform items and new local authority registers to ensure fewer pupils fly under the radar when they are not at school.

There was no detailed plan for adult social care, with Downing Street advisers saying there was “no quick legislative fix” to tackle the crisis, but adding that a new deal on fair pay could help address staffing issues.

Starmer said he wanted to see a more rigorous approach to standards in public life, adding: “We are all responsible for the tone and standards that we set.” His plans for a new ethics and integrity commission do not require primary legislation to be set up.

A new Hillsborough Act will impose a legal duty of candour on civil servants and authorities, which the government says would address “the unacceptable defensive culture that prevails in too much of the public sector”.

There is also a new law to impose “special measures” on water companies to clean up rivers, lakes and seas, with bosses facing personal criminal prosecution if they break the law and a strengthened regulator with the power to ban bonus payments if environmental standards are not met.

Plans to end the “outdated and indefensible” presence of hereditary peers in the House of Lords have been introduced, but the retirement age of 80 has been delayed, as has the vote for 16-year-olds, which is set to take place in the run-up to the next election.

Labour has also introduced an overtly political bill: a requirement to consult the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) before making substantial tax changes, something former Prime Minister Liz Truss failed to do before her disastrous mini-budget.

Rishi Sunak, the Conservative leader, sought to counter the government’s portrayal of his legacy as “as bleak as possible”, adding that the economy was on an “upward trajectory”.

He said the opposition would “demand that the government keep its own promises” not to raise taxes beyond its manifesto, adding that “it would be difficult for them to claim that things are worse than they thought and then go back on their promises”.