Keir Starmer gears up for battle on his ‘Red revolution’ King’s Speech

Keir Starmer is gearing up for battle on his Red revolution today after unveiling a King’s Speech for ‘working people’.

The first Labour King’s Speech for 14 years outlined a blizzard of around 40 bills with the PM vowing to deliver ‘real change that transforms lives’ and counters the ‘snake oil charm of populism’.

The measures include a major overhaul of the planning system, renationalising the railways, a centralised GB Energy body to push Net Zero, a truancy crackdown and bringing Channel smuggling gangs under terror laws.

Amid the usual pomp and ceremony, the King said ministers will go ahead with controversial class-war plans to impose VAT on private school fees.

The ban on current 15-year-olds ever buying cigarettes is being revived, after the previous attempt was lost when Rishi Sunak called the election.  

However, Labour is already facing a backlash from Tories, Lib Dems and Greens over weakening protections for the ‘green belt’ and stripping communities of rights to object to construction. Instead it will be a question of ‘how, not if’ homes are built.

Businesses have voiced concerns about moves to roll back curbs on unions and give workers ‘default’ rights to flexible working ‘from day one’. Lawyers warned ‘unintended consequences’ could mean a swathe of summary sackings before the rules take effect.  

Sir Keir has also confirmed that the Rwanda deportation scheme is being axed, ignoring hopes it was already having a deterrent effect.

Despite his massive majority as Labour begins its first spell in power for 14 years, Sir Keir faces trouble in his own ranks as MPs voiced fury at the failure to axe the two-child cap on receiving benefits. 

And there was no sign of Labour’s flagship pledge to bring in votes for 16-year-olds, which critics claim is an attempt to ‘gerrymander’ elections. Sources insisted it has not been prioritised because there are no ballots looming, with Sir Keir admitting change will not come ‘overnight’.

In other key points from the package:

• The King said the government will ‘reset the relationship with European partners and work to improve the United Kingdom’s trade and investment relationship with the EU’; 
• The HS2 stage from Crewe to Manchester will not be revived;
• A ban on conversion therapy is only included in a draft Bill;
• Government will be legally obliged to have fiscal events signed off by the OBR in the wake of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget;
• Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir put a burgeoning ‘bromance’ on show despite their election rivalry as they laughed and joked while walking between the Commons and Lords; 

In his introduction to the speech, Sir Keir said he wanted to ‘unite the country in our shared mission of national renewal’.

He insisted ‘the era of politics as performance and self-interest above service is over’ – saying delivery was the only way to counter the ‘snake oil charm of populism’.

‘The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era,’ he said.

‘It is only by serving the interests of working people, and delivering real change that transforms lives, that we can begin to restore people’s faith that politics can be a force for good.

‘Rebuilding our country will not happen overnight. 

‘The challenges we face require determined, patient work and serious solutions, rather than the temptation of the easy answer. 

‘The snake oil charm of populism may sound seductive, but it drives us into the dead end of further division and greater disappointment.

‘This King’s Speech sets out a clear destination for our country.’

Sir Keir said he would ‘reform the planning rules to build the homes and infrastructure the country desperately needs’. 

‘We will level up workers’ rights, so every person has security, respect and dignity at work; we will create a new industrial strategy and invest in cleaner, cheaper British energy; and we will harness the power of artificial intelligence as we look to strengthen safety frameworks,’ he said.

‘Democratic decisions are best made by people with skin in the game, so my government will push power out of Westminster and empower local leaders to deliver for their communities.’

In his speech, the King gave an outline of the government’s plans on foreign policy: ‘My Government will continue to give its full support to Ukraine and its people and it will endeavour to play a leading role in providing Ukraine with a clear path to NATO membership.

‘My Government will seek to reset the relationship with European partners and work to improve the United Kingdom’s trade and investment relationship with the European Union. My Ministers will seek a new security pact to strengthen cooperation on the mutual threats faced by the United Kingdom and the European Union.

‘My Government will play its part in trying to secure long term peace and security in the Middle East. It is committed to a two state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.’

The PM said he would ‘take the brakes off Britain’ with a string of growth-boosting measures.

Decisions on key infrastructure projects, such as the miles of pylons to link new windfarms to the grid, will increasingly be handed to ministers.

Sources said the new Planning Bill will curb residents’ ability to block controversial developments.

Areas of the Green Belt deemed ‘low quality’ will be re-designated as ‘Grey Belt’ and released for development. 

Local authorities will also be required to identify land for building.

Councils will also be ordered to designate land for development in their local plans.

Labour’s manifesto states that communities should still be allowed to ‘shape housebuilding in their area’, but suggests they will lose their veto over development.

It says that ‘where necessary’ ministers ‘will not be afraid to make full use of intervention powers to build the houses we need’.

The party has committed to a ‘brownfield-first’ approach to housebuilding but said brownfield sites alone ‘will not be enough to meet our housing need’.

Plans for the ‘strategic’ release of Green Belt land and the redesignation of areas as ‘Grey Belt’ have alarmed campaigners.

Labour’s manifesto pledged to kick-start the economy and generate the highest growth in the G7 by the end of this Parliament.

But the scale of the challenge was underlined yesterday when the International Monetary Fund left its UK growth forecast unchanged, predicting growth of 1.5 per cent next year.

And although figures today showed inflation coming in unchanged at 2 per cent last month, they were not as good as economists had hoped – potentially pushing back the prospects of interest rate cuts beyond August. 

Lizzie Bundred-Woodward, of the countryside charity CPRE, said the group supported the ambition to build more homes.

But she added: ‘We urgently need some clarity on Labour’s definition of Grey Belt. The Green Belt is the countryside next door for 30million people in towns and cities across the UK.

‘It is crucial for food security, nature recovery, climate change mitigation alongside mental and physical wellbeing.

‘We’ll always advocate for recycling previously developed land than eating away at the Green Belt.’

WFH from day one? ‘Default’ right to flexible working as Labour hands power back to unions 

Labour has committed to sweeping away zero hours contracts, giving workers’ more rights and handing back power to unions.

The New Deal for Workers was being championed by Angela Rayner, but has seemingly been given to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.   

The King’s Speech includes a pledge to ban zero hours arrangements, but after protests from businesses and people who benefit from the terms it has been watered down.

Only ‘exploitative’ deals will be targeted.

The government is vowing to end so-called ‘Fire and Rehire’ and ‘Fire and Replace’ practices. 

Parental leave, sick pay and unfair dismissal protection would also be made available from the first day in a job.

Flexible working is also being made the ‘default’, but there is an important caveat that this is only ‘as far as is reasonable’ rather than a right.

The Tory government’s reforms of union powers, including minimum service standards in areas like rail, will be abolished. 

The process of getting recognition for unions in workplaces will also be ‘simplified’, although there are few details. 

Nationalised railways and more powers for councils to run buses 

Labour will effectively renationalise the railways and hand local authorities stronger powers to set up and run bus routes as it seeks to reform public transport.  

New legislation will be introduced to create a simplified rail system by bringing services into ‘public ownership’ once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments. 

Most existing railway contracts are set to expire by the end of 2025, and while some extend into the 2030s, senior Labour sources suggested the Government could take advantage of break clauses to bring services back into public ownership sooner.

It aims to have the change completed by 2029, with a ‘shadow GBR’ set up immediately even before contracts end, with a remit to also include ‘industrial relations.

Labour claims this approach will avoid the burden falling on taxpayers to cough up for compensation to operators.

Local authorities will receive more powers over bus routes and the ability to set up their own bus companies once again under the terms of a proposed Better Buses Bill. 

Ban on trans conversion therapy ‘abuse’ 

Labour will move to ban the ‘abuse’ of conversion therapy for gay and transgender people with a new law allowing people to freely ‘explore their sexual orientation and gender identity’.

The King’s Speech includes plans for a Draft Conversion Practices Bill, which would block action to ‘change, ”cure’ or suppress’ someone’s sexuality or gender ID.

However the Government appears to have slowed its charge towards change. Before the election, now minister Nick Thomas-Symonds suggested it could be brought in within 100 days of taking power. 

But the Government is only suggesting the a draft bill rather than something ready to be introduced as legislation. New  Health Secretary Wes Streeting has adopted a more cautious, measured approach to trans issues. He has kept a separate ban on puberty blockers being given to children, saying he wants his actions to be guided by scientific evidence. 

The draft bill will propose to bring in new offences targeting conversion ‘therapy’ not covered by existing laws.

But it would also include major carve outs for ‘legitimate psychological support, treatment, or non-directive counselling’, and the guidance says it must also ‘respect the important role that teachers, religious leaders, parents and carers can have.’

JR Rowling waded into a Labour row over puberty blockers for children last week as she defended the new Health Secretary’s decision to keep a Tory ban on their use.

The Harry Potter author and gender rights campaigner backed Wes Streeting as he  faced a backlash from backbenchers and activists over a decision to keep the prohibition on the strong drugs.

Truancy crackdown to help ‘ghost children’ 

A crackdown on truancy is one of the main measures in the government’s new legislative package.

Ministers want to impose a legal duty on councils to keep a register of so-called ‘ghost children’ – who barely attend school – and make parents formally declare when they are home-schooling.

AI will be deployed to help schools, GPs and councils work together more closely.

The Education Bill, which is being prioritised, will also include a legal requirement for breakfast clubs in every primary school.

And schools will be banned from requiring pupils to wear more than three branded items of uniform.

Labour sets course for ‘smoke-free UK’ with progressive tobacco ban

Labour today outlined its plan for a ‘smoke-free UK’ as it relit Rishi Sunak‘s progressive tobacco ban.

The former Tory PM’s plan to prevent children born after January 1 2009 from ever purchasing cigarettes under an age limit which moved every year was killed off when he called the early election.

But Labour ran on a manifesto pledge to reintroduce it alongside tough news rules to prevent vapes and other nicotine products being marketed at children. 

The King’s Speech today outlined plans for a Tobacco and Vapes Bill, hailing it as a ‘landmark step in creating a smoke-free UK’.

Though Labour’s huge majority means that it will almost certainly become law it is likely to become a major dividing line in the race to become the next Conservative Party leader.

Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, who are all expected to run to replace Mr Sunak, voted against it at an early stage in the last Parliament after Tory MPs were given a free vote.

However, the chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, said it would be ‘a major step forward in public health’.

‘A smoke-free country would prevent disease, disability and premature deaths long into the future,’ he said.

‘Smoking causes harm across the life course from stillbirths, asthma in children, cancers, strokes, heart attacks and dementia. Most smokers wish they had never started. Second hand smoke causes harm including to vulnerable people.’

Shoplifting epidemic action and ‘ninja sword’ ban in crime crackdown

Police will be told to toughen up their response to the UK’s shoplifting epidemic in a crime crackdown. 

Labour sought to shore up its position on law and order by vowing to bring in ‘stronger measures to tackle low-level shoplifting’. 

They will reversing changes made a decade ago that deemed thefts under £200 ‘low value’. and therefore less of a priority.

The change was branded a called ‘shoplifters’ charter’ and has been blamed, along with the dire state of the economy generally, for a surge in retail thefts to record levels.

There will also be a new specific offence of assaulting a shopworker. 

Retail leaders complained that shoplifting had effectively ‘decriminalised’ in April when new data revealed 430,104 offences were recorded by police in the year to December 2023. That figure was up by more than a third (37 per cent) from 315,040 in the previous 12 months.

The figure was the highest since current records began in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and has seen retailers resorting to putting security tags on low value and everyday items.

It is one of a number of measures aimed at restoring community confidence in policing under the new Labour government. 

There is also expected to be new legislation targeting ‘ninja swords’ to act on a pledge made during the election campaign. 

Last week Sir Keir met again with Luther and The Wire actor Idris Elba, who campaigns against knife crime, having held talks during the election campaign. 

They met at a King’s Trust even attended by Charles on Friday at St James’s Palace.

Labour has also said it will introduce a ‘neighbourhood policing guarantee’ which will establish a named officer responsible for tackling anti-social behaviour in each community. 

In April Sir Keir backed the Mail campaign for a crackdown on assaults against staff, saying: ‘The public are rightly outraged about the level of lawlessness on our high streets. 

More power for regional mayors

Labour will undertake a ‘devolution revolution’ that will hand more powers to regional leaders to control skills, energy, planning and transport.

The King’s Speech included plans for ‘moving power out of Westminster and back to those who know their areas best’.

It notes that England is ‘on of the most centralised economies in the world and has some of the highest levels of geographic inequality’, despite half of its population and economic output being based in devolved areas.

The English Devolution Bill will hand more powers to elected mayors – who are currently overwhelmingly Labour politicians – to ‘kickstart their economies as well as empowering communities to transform their neighbourhoods, high streets and important community assets’.

However, critics may point to other changes unveiled in the speech, especially covering planning, which might take power away from local communities, especially if they try to block housing projects.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner, who is also the Communities and Local Government Secretary, wrote to leaders of councils which are not subject to a devolution deal before the speech, to urge them to ‘partner with the Government’.

The Labour Government has said its doors are open for areas that want to take on devolution for the first time, as well as potential increases in powers for currently devolved local government.

Earlier this month, Sir Keir and Ms Rayner held a meeting with 11 regional leaders, including Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, and the only Conservative mayor, Tees Valley’s Lord Houchen.

The Government is exploring reform of the national planning policy framework, including restoring mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities, as part of the drive to build 1.5 million homes over five years.

Housebuilding targets will mean allowing building on some land currently designated as green belt.

Ms Rayner said the Government ‘can’t have major infrastructure programmes being held up at a local planning level’ as she disputed that planning decisions being made at a national level is the opposite of devolution.

Hereditary peers to be turfed out the House of Lords 

Sir Keir Starmer will push ahead with plans to turf out hereditary peers from the House of Lords – but the Prime Minister shied away from wider reforms.

As part of the King’s Speech, which set out the new Government’s legislative agenda, Labour promised fresh laws to scrap the remaining 90 hereditary peers.

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill will remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in Parliament’s upper chamber.

Labour said the continued presence of hereditary peers in the Lords – who are there by right of birth – was ‘outdated and indefensible’ and reform is ‘long overdue and essential’.

But the King’s Speech included no plans for further changes to the Lords, while there was also no legislation to fulfil Labour’s manifesto promise to give the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds.

The Government said, in the 21st century, there should not be seats in the Lords ‘reserved for individuals who were born into certain families’ or ‘seats effectively reserved for men’.

Hereditary peers are currently 100 per cent male as most peerages can only be passed down the male line.

Labour also attacked the ‘static’ political composition of hereditary peers, with 42 seats ringfenced for Conservatives, 28 for crossbenchers, three for Liberal Democrats, and two for Labour, while 15 are elected by the whole House.

The remaining hereditary peers in the Lords were left as an exception to Labour’s last reforms to the upper House in 1999, when they were previously in power.

The Government said removing these leftover hereditary peers would ‘take us a step closer to a House of Lords that is fit for the 21st century’.

But Labour unveiled no further plans for Lords reform despite having promised to do so prior to the general election.

Their manifesto included a pledge to introduce a mandatory retirement age of 80 for all peers.

They vowed to bring in a new participation requirement for peers and make it easier for disgraced members to be removed from the Lords.

Following recent controversies over new peerages, Labour also pledged to ‘reform the appointments process to ensure the quality of new appointments’.

 

Major planning shake-up to ‘get Britain building’ 

Labour today unveiled a major overhaul of planning laws as part of their bid to ‘get Britain building’ and deliver 1.5 million new houses over the next five years.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill was among flagship legislation in the King’s Speech, which will ‘accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery’.

The Government branded the current planning system a ‘major brake’ on economic growth and vowed to press ahead with reforms.

They warned their planning shake-up will mean local communities will only be  consulted on ‘how, not if’ homes and infrastructure are built.

Their proposals include ‘modernising’ planning committees and increasing the capacity of local planning authorities.

The Bill also includes measures for ‘streamlining’ processes for delivering new infrastructure – such as roads, railways, and resevoirs – and overhauling compulsary purchase compensation rules.

It is expected that onshore wind farms, laboratories, and data centres will also be classed as nationally significant infrastructure. 

Prior to the general election, Labour promised to update the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF).

This is a 78-page document that sets out planning policies for England and how these should be applied.

In their manifesto, Labour said they would undo ‘damaging’ Tory changes to the NPPF – such as reversing the scrapping of mandatory local housebuilding targets for councils.

These were junked by the Tories in 2022, shortly after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, after dozens of Conservative MPs threatened a rebellion.

Since taking office, Labour have already acted to remove a de facto ban on new onshore wind farms in England that was previously set out in the NPPF.

As part of their planning shake-up, they have also vowed to take ‘tough action’ to ensure councils have up-to-date Local Plans.

They said they would strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development, and would ‘not be afraid to make full use of intervention powers’ to overrule local authorities in their bid to boost housebuilding.

It has been reported that new legal measures will force councils to quickly identify enough land to meet their predicted future housing needs.

Once that land has been identified, there will then be a presumption in favour of development, with local residents able to agree the style of new housing but not object to it being built.

Local councils that fail to produce timely plans will see ministers step in and impose house building blueprints on them, according to The Times.

Government sources told the newspaper that ministers intended to be ‘robust’ with any local authority that tried to delay implementing the new rules.

Labour’s plans could also include an enhanced role for new mayors in the planning process. 

In their manifesto, Labour promised to supply councils with more funding for extra planning officers and pursue a ‘brownfield first approach’ to building new homes.

It is expected the recruitment drive will see 300 more planning officers, which will be funded by increasing the rate of the Stamp Duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.

But Labour have warned a ‘brownfield first approach’ alone will not be enough to meet their housebuilding target.

They pledged to take a ‘more strategic approach’ to the designation of green belt land.

Labour are set to rebrand some of the green belt as ‘grey belt’ land, which they deem to be ‘lower quality’.

These are likely to be areas that are old car parks or wastelands, as well as some green spaces with ‘little intrinsic beauty or character’.