King Charles III to Deliver Labour’s First Programme for Government in Decades
In a significant moment for the United Kingdom, King Charles III will deliver Labour’s first programme for government in 14 years on Wednesday, outlining the party’s legislative plans for the coming months. The speech, which will take place in the House of Lords upper chamber, is expected to include more than 35 bills aimed at turbocharging the economy, improving workers’ rights, and addressing the country’s cost-of-living crisis.
According to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the government’s focus will be on creating wealth for people across the country, saying, "Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain. I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country. It is the only way our country can progress."
The speech will also detail plans to enforce public spending rules, prevent utility bill price hikes, and launch a fund to draw investment into the UK. Additionally, Labour is expected to announce the restoration of mandatory housebuilding targets, plans to renationalise Britain’s rail services, and the opening of recruitment for a new border security command.
The ceremony, which will take place at 11:30 am, will see King Charles, wearing the diamond-studded Imperial State Crown and a long crimson robe, deliver the proposals from a golden throne. The monarch’s speech will be followed by a parliamentary tradition, where an MP is ceremonially held "hostage" in the palace to ensure the king’s safe return.
Former Labour minister Tony McNulty, a British politics lecturer at the Queen Mary University of London, commented on the significance of the occasion, saying, "This is a hungry party. They are chomping at the bit to show that they can return to being what they see as the natural party of government."
The King’s Speech is not written by the monarch but by the government, which uses it to detail the laws it proposes to make over the next 12 months. King Charles, a keen environmentalist, will deliver the speech in keeping with the convention that the monarch is above politics.
