Labour’s legislative programme up and running

Yesterday, the new government set out its legislative agenda for the first session of this Parliament and underlined its central priorities for the months ahead. The speech delivered on many of Labour’s manifesto commitments, such as Great British Energy and Labour’s New Deal for Working People. However, there were some notable omissions, including the manifesto promise to bring down the voting age to 16.

The King’s Speech and accompanying documents included a total of 40 Bills, two of which were carried over from the previous government, including the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will gradually ban smoking over time by increasing the age at which people can buy cigarettes.

This is a considerable amount of legislation – there have not been so many Bills announced at the state opening of Parliament since 2005, also under a Labour government.

Its programme is built around the government's five cross-cutting missions of boosting economic growth, scaling up clean energy, tackling crime, breaking down barriers to opportunity, and supporting the NHS.

With the exception of Labour’s flagship workers’ rights legislation and its ambitious planning reforms, the Bills announced yesterday reflect a continuation of the fairly cautious approach the Prime Minister and his inner circle have taken during his premiership. While there is a lot of legislation, the intended benefits of many of these Bills will not be felt by the electorate for quite some time. Keir Starmer made reference to this in his remarks to Parliament after the speech, he said, “national renewal is not a quick fix. The rot of 14 years will take time to repair.”

Clearly reflecting on the scale of the task it faces, especially regarding Britain’s struggling public services, the new government has opted for a couple of big, impactful announcements to demonstrate its ability to create the change Labour promised during the general election campaign. But aside from these, it has been careful not to be seen to over promise.

While Labour’s newly swelled backbenches had a broadly disciplined response to the King’s Speech, there was nevertheless a clear push back from the party rank and file on the government’s decision not to announce the rollback of the two child benefit cap now that Labour is in government with a significant majority. Accordingly, the government swiftly announced a review into child poverty and met with relevant third sector representatives – all of whom have been calling for the cap to be removed. It is, perhaps, an early sign of something that is likely to have a significant impact on parts of the government’s legislative agenda: Labour may have a large majority, but that means a greater number of its MPs feel more comfortable challenging their leadership when they don’t agree on policy.

Despite the push for greater radicalism from parts of the Labour movement, the Prime Minister will be broadly pleased with the reaction to the King’s Speech but know it is how they deliver their agenda that really matters.