King’s Speech: Starmer question casts doubt over policy delivery

The speech was delivered against the backdrop of significant political pressure on the prime minister following last week’s difficult election results for the governing Labour party that he leads. In that context, Sir Keir will be hoping that the speech acts as a reset on his government as part of a broader effort to reassert political direction – despite reports suggesting that he could soon face a formal challenge to his leadership from within his party.

In total, 35 bills and draft bills were trailed (129-page / 776KB PDF) in the King’s Speech – with centralising themes of delivering energy, defence and economic security and combatting the cost-of-living crisis.

The initiatives planned include everything from legislation promoting clean energy generation and water industry reform, to reforms to the leasehold system and strengthening of cybersecurity requirements. The agenda set out also includes measures to tackle regulatory barriers to innovation, support airport expansion, tackle late payments, modernise how citizens access public services via digital IDs, introduce a duty of candour for public officials, and speed up cladding remediation. However, it is the government’s plans to strengthen ties with the EU via a new European Partnership Bill that perhaps best illustrates the prime minister’s medium-term policy and political strategy for dealing with the fragmentation of party politics.

For businesses, the uncertainties over the prime minister’s future do cast doubt on whether his legislative agenda will be delivered: a change in leadership at the heart of government could result in a change in policy direction. This uncertainty complicates business’ long-term planning and could dampen investment at a time when the UK is seeking to stimulate growth.

However, for now, businesses can look at the King’s Speech as providing the top line sense of overall direction of UK policymaking under the Starmer premiership – even if they must wait to see more detailed proposals to properly assess the impact the new laws could have on them.