Keir Starmer will use Wednesday’s king’s speech to set out 35 bills for the next parliamentary session, unveiling a programme that reaches from housing and immigration to energy and the future shape of the National Health Service. The prime minister is promising a year of action, even as questions swirl over whether his own party will give him the room to deliver it.
Starmer said on Tuesday night that the British people expected the government to get on with changing the country for the better, cutting the cost of living, bringing down hospital waiting lists and keeping the country safe in an increasingly dangerous world. He said his government would deliver on the promise of change for the British people, after telling ministers earlier in the day: “I take responsibility for the change we promised.”
The speech will be heavy on legislation. It is expected to include a bill to move closer to the EU, another to enable British regulations to be changed so they can align with EU rules, and a bill to strengthen the immigration system. Housing measures will include a leasehold reform bill that would all but end the leasehold system and ban the sale of new leasehold flats, although the housing minister has already admitted that the measure will not actually take effect until after the next election.
Energy will also be central. The government plans an energy independence bill designed to make the transition to clean power easier, including measures recommended by John Fingleton to speed up the building of nuclear power plants. The king will also announce a bill to fully nationalise British Steel, after the company had already been taken into government control.
Alongside that, Wes Streeting will oversee legislation to abolish NHS England, and Bridget Phillipson will bring forward reforms to special educational needs. The state opening, in which the monarch reads out the government’s planned programme, is already under security arrangements for Wednesday.
The day before the ceremony has already exposed the strain around it. Royal sources said on Tuesday that the event could prove embarrassing for King Charles, and a royal source said it would be “very embarrassing” for the king to read out a programme that might not still be the government’s by the end of the week. According to people familiar with the matter, Charles’s senior aide asked top government officials, including the cabinet secretary, Antonia Romeo, whether the king should go ahead. The palace was told that it was constitutionally correct for the king to open parliament on Wednesday as planned.
Starmer has been planning his second king’s speech for months, but the political backdrop has changed sharply. The programme comes amid pressure from Labour MPs, some of whom are demanding his resignation, and the government is trying to turn a legislative package into proof that the prime minister still controls the agenda. Wednesday will show whether that claim lands as a reset or reads instead as a fragile promise carried into parliament under strain.
