King’s Speech will be biggest symbol of change Labour hopes to bring

Wednesday will be the first time in 14 years that Labour has set the agenda for government.

So, for Sir Keir Starmer’s new administration, this moment is rich in symbolism and in substance.

It is the chance for his government to exercise its power and show momentum.

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The King’s Speech will be the “foundation stone” for Sir Keir’s much-repeated mission to “rebuild Britain”. Number 10 will lay down over 35 bills to that end, with economic growth at the forefront of the programme for government.

Armed with a 170-seat majority and in the honeymoon period with the public, the new prime minister’s approval ratings have ticked up eight points since the election, according to YouGov, and he is now on the cusp of having a positive net favourability.

Watch coverage of the King’s Speech live on Sky News on Wednesday

This period of time is perhaps as good as it’s going to get for Sir Keir. He is at the apex of his power and this King’s Speech will be closely watched as the blueprint for the scale of his ambition in the opening phases of premiership for a leader who says he wants to carry out a “decade of renewal”.

And his team are buoyed. Appearing at a Labour Together event on Monday evening, Chancellor Rachel Reeves spoke of how “one day in government” is already better than 14 years in opposition because it means her party can finally get things done.

One senior figure said Sir Keir and his team intended to run an “insurgent” administration, in which it has to prove to the public that the government can do a little bit more for them, to fix things, and then look to the future about what it might do next, rather than expect support on its record.

To that end, his team stresses that the meat of the agenda will be around delivering growth, as well it might given that the new Labour government is relying on that, rather than additional tax rises, to better fund creaking public services.

One government figure told me: “It’s going to feel really big, by any comparison to any incoming government. We’ve had a week to knock it about, but we’ve been working on it for a lot longer, and you wouldn’t be able to compare to another new government, it’s that meaty.

“It’s going to be a real moment in terms of focus and setting out the missions and delivery. There will be unfinished business in there and a sense of a government of service.”

The raft of bills will include bedding in fiscal rules and empowering the Office for Budget Responsibility to independently publish forecasts of big fiscal events.

In her first speech as chancellor, Ms Reeves articulated the political story the government will seek to make over the next five years: “To fix the foundations of our economy so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off.”

There will be a series of “growth” focused bills – be it around housebuilding, devolution, improving transport and increasing jobs.

They also will push ahead with GB Energy, a new state-owned energy investor that will take stakes in renewables and nuclear projects as part of Labour’s promise to deliver all electricity from renewable sources by the end of the decade.

On the planning side, Labour will legislate so that public bodies can use compulsory purchase order powers to acquire land without the need for individual approvals by a secretary of state.

A new “take back control” bill will set a presumption towards devolution with new powers for mayors over transport, skills, energy and planning, which Labour says will help rejuvenate high streets and generate growth right across the country.

On housing, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s ban on no-fault evictions will also be tabled in a push to reform the private rented sector in England.

Ms Reeves has already announced plans to restore mandatory local housing targets in order to get more housebuilding, and Ms Rayner will begin the formal process of consulting on the National Planning Policy Framework before the end of July – with a view to start implementing the plans as early as autumn as Labour looks to get moving.

The government will also include plans to implement worker protection reforms, including a crackdown on zero-hours contracts and “fire and rehire” practices, and an AI bill, which will seem to enhance the legal safeguards around the most cutting-edge technologies.

There will also be a new law to put the water industry in “special measures”, which would see executives face bonus restrictions and potential criminal sanctions if they fail to clean up Britain’s rivers and beaches.

Much of the King Speech will reflect Sir Keir’s “first steps” for government he campaigned on during the general election.

But his message of change is also qualified with a plea for patience from a new Labour government, which is using its early weeks in office to talk up the state of the inheritance – as George Osborne did in 2010 – in order to buy time.

You only have to look at what Ms Reeves has said on the state of the public finances, caused in large part by the pandemic and energy price shock, or what the prime minister has said on the state of some public services, with prisons in a “shocking” and “far worse” state than he had anticipated, to see the pitch-rolling that improvements are going to take time – perhaps the full five years of the first term.

But with a big majority and a party hungry for change, there are already hints of some of the pressures to come for this infant government.

The SNP has announced plans to table an amendment in the King’s Speech calling on the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Kim Johnson of Labour is also tabling an amendment which former shadow chancellor John McDonnell will support.

A rebellion on this is building, with many in the party agreeing with former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown and Scotland’s Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who have publicly called on Sir Keir to scrap it.

The prime minister has refused to do so, saying this is a “difficult” decision driven by tight public finances.

Mr McDonnell has said he will look to amend the budget later this year if it doesn’t include steps to scrap the cap.

There is also internal disquiet in the party that the Labour Together and Labour First groupings are messaging the new 2024 MPs with a slate to take control of the parliamentary Labour Party and National Executive Committee positions.

One backbench source tells me that this “fixing” is adding to resentment amongst a group in the party after the government dropped 31 shadow ministers, while one figure tells me that MPs with large Sikh communities are beginning to bring up the problem of both Skikh shadow ministers being dropped.

A government source downplayed the tensions, pointing out that “groupings that are seen as more pro or sceptical of the leadership running in internal elections is as old as the hills”, and said the party leadership was not organising such slates.

But with a majority of 172, Sir Keir will not be too worried about internal soundings. His most pressing task is to show the public that his government really does mean change – and the King’s Speech will be the biggest symbol of that yet.