What does the King’s Speech tell us about Labour's plan for Britain?

In brief...

• The King read out a host of new Labour bills as part of a historic tradition
• Major headlines from the day include planning and railway reform
• But could these plans spark a backlash? And do we now have a sense of Labour's plan for the country? Perhaps, say The News Agents.

No, it wasn’t a scene from a Monty Python film.

From guards on horseback and clinking glass to a fake hostage check, these were some of the traditions that took place before the King laid out Labour’s legislative programme, with 35 new bills announced by the monarch on behalf of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

It marked the first speech of this kind under a Labour government since 1945.

But what the hell was this all about? And what clues does it give us about “Starmerism?”

Well, there were no surprises, but Jon Sopel says there were two big headliners grabbers from the day’s proceedings.

Housing

Starmer has made planning reform the centerpiece of his “change” agenda in the early stages of his premiership, pledging to “fight the blockers'  who he says are hamstringing housebuilding targets.

To achieve his goal of building 1.5 million homes and making home ownership a realistic goal in Britain once again, Starmer has announced a package of measures.

They include removing resident’s veto powers on new developments and infrastructure projects,  giving locals a say on “how, not if” new homes and infrastructure are built.

Starmer will also force local councils to adopt mandatory housing targets within months, devolve power to local mayors to kickstart developments and give young buyers “first dibs” on new homes.

Lewis Goodall says scrapping communities’ veto power could backfire.

He says you may “start to see area after area after area of people, local people getting deeply, deeply pissed off writing to their MPs and suddenly all of that comes together, particularly in the digital age and you have real backlash and real political problems very quickly”.

This could cause Starmer “real backlash and real political problems”, Goodall adds.

Sopel says this was the most “controversial bill” announced in the King’s speech.

He adds: “How much opposition will there be? Not just from Conservative MPs, but from some Labour MPs who now have constituencies with large rural areas as a result of the landslide election?”

Railways

Labour’s new bill is set to enact its pledge to nationalise the railways.

This “simplified rail system” will bring rail services into public ownership once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments, the party says.

Starmer claims this approach “will avoid the burden falling on taxpayers to cough up for compensation to operators for taking services into public ownership”.

What else was mentioned?

A Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which gives police counter-terror powers to tackle migrant smuggling gangs.

A new publicly owned energy investment company that will help Britain secure "clean, secure, home-grown energy and lower bills for families", was also announced under the Great British Energy Bill.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will force bosses of private water firms to be personally liable for breaking laws, and hand the water regulator powers to ban bonuses.

What wasn’t mentioned?

Labour pledged to give 16 year-olds the vote, but there was no utterance of this from King Charles III today. The new government has also yet to introduce a two-child benefit cap, despite Starmer calling it a “desirable” policy. Jon and Lewis questioned Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson on why these issues were missing from the speech on The News Agents.

The takeaway? 

Goodall says: “Of all the parliamentary moments in the year, I think the King’s speech is the most empty. Were there any surprises? No. Basically it is just a very glorified, very beautiful looking press release.”

Listen to the latest episode of the News Agents here: What is Starmerism? Labour's first King's Speech