Keir Starmer will use Wednesday’s king’s speech to try to seize back the political initiative, unveiling a package of 35 bills for the next parliamentary session as the government seeks to show it is still driving events rather than being dragged by them. The programme will be read by King Charles at the state opening of parliament, where security arrangements are already in place for his attendance.
The scale of the package is meant to signal momentum after a bruising run of political pressure, including demands from Starmer’s own MPs for him to quit. On Tuesday night, the prime minister said the public expects the government to get on with the job of 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 also said Britain stands at a pivotal moment, and that his government would deliver on the promise of change.
Among the headline measures is a bill to move closer to the EU by allowing British regulations to be changed so they can align with European ones. Another bill is being billed as an energy independence measure, designed to speed the transition to clean power and include steps recommended by John Fingleton to make it easier to build nuclear power plants. Starmer will also announce a bill to strengthen the immigration system and another to all but end the leasehold system.
The housing plan is one of the clearest examples of the gap between political ambition and legislative reality. Ministers will launch a leasehold reform bill that bans the sale of new leasehold flats, but the housing minister has already admitted it will not actually take effect until after the next election. In other words, the promise is immediate, while the change itself is not.
The rest of the agenda reaches across the machinery of the state. Wes Streeting will oversee a bill to abolish NHS England. Bridget Phillipson will legislate for reforms to special educational needs. And the king will announce a bill to fully nationalise British Steel, a move Starmer said on Monday would form part of a wider push for radical change over the next few years.
That is the point of Wednesday’s ceremony, and also its problem. Royal sources said the event could prove embarrassing for King Charles, with one source saying it was very embarrassing for the king that his government is such a shambles that he has to read out something that may or may not still be the government’s programme by the end of the week. Charles’s senior aide had already asked top government officials whether he should go ahead with the ceremony, and the palace was told it was constitutionally correct to open parliament on Wednesday as planned.
The king’s speech has been planned by the prime minister for months and is part of the state opening of parliament, but this one lands at a moment of unusual political fragility. The government is under pressure not only from the opposition but from Starmer’s own side, and the programme is being presented as a reset even as some of the big-ticket items are clearly designed to survive well beyond the immediate row. The question now is not whether Wednesday will produce a legislative menu — it will — but whether Starmer can turn it into proof that his government still has the authority to govern.
