King’s Speech: Charles to unveil government’s plans for year – live

Laudable and well received as many of these government initiatives will be, it’s difficult to see them making many switch their vote before a potential January 2025 election, writes Sean O’Grady:

His Majesty the King will shortly deliver his first Most Gracious Address as head of state, to parliament, commonly known as the King’s Speech. As ever, the text has been prepared by his ministers.

As part of the ceremonial aspects of the constitution, it goes back, in some form or other, for many centuries, and is a small reminder that we remain a constitutional monarchy and not a populist dictatorship in a system of one-party rule.

Politically, its significance lies in how it sets the tone as well as the practical programme for the forthcoming session of parliament. Given that the next general election must be held by January 2025, it’s necessarily going to be lighter than if it were being made by a change of government straight after a general election.

It also has to be less controversial, so that Tory party unity is preserved more easily and the bills actually get passed.

On Tuesday, King Charles will deliver his first State Opening of Parliament as monarch – an event that has been long been steeped in custom, pomp and pageantry.

The event marks the formal start of the parliamentary year and sets out the government’s proposed policies and legislation for the 2023-24 session.

The late Queen Elizabeth II delivered the speech a total of 67 times during her reign and only missed it only a handful of times including the year of her death last year. Charles delivered a speech on behalf of his mother in May 2022.

He will now be embracing traditions that have been in place since the 16th century for the first time as monarch. Here’s all of the pomp and pageantry to expect from the event…

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk rejected the suggestion that the measures in the King’s Speech were focused on a general election, expected next year.

He told LBC: “I would respectfully disagree. You’re right, there is a general election in the air, that’s correct.

“A lot of the things that we are doing are things that we have been thinking about for some time. So I myself personally, when I wasn’t in government last year, I was speaking at the Conservative Party conference, and a lot of what we’re going to do, they’re the very measures that I was talking about then.

“These are things that people like me and others have been thinking about, have been working out, have been doing the intellectual groundwork on and we’re now going to bring them into force.”

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the planned criminal justice reforms, due to be set out in the King’s Speech, were about “head as well as heart”.

“It’s something that I’ve been talking about for a long time because I’m a barrister by background, I’ve seen this stuff,” he told Times Radio.

“This is about head as well as it is about heart. This is about ensuring that I don’t want you, I don’t want your family, I don’t want my family, to be victims of crime.

“So what I want to ensure is that people who are the greatest threat to you and your family are kept out of circulation for longer… but those who are capable of being rehabilitated should be rehabilitated. And that seems to me to be smart.”

As he prepares to unveil what is on course to be his last programme for government as prime minister, Mr Sunak said the speech would stimulate the economy and strengthen society, and suggested its legacy would last seven decades.

Mr Sunak also pledged to bring forward bills that help people feel safer “in their own communities” and instil a pride in the “place they call home” on Tuesday.

The King’s Speech will be seen as an indication of Mr Sunak’s priorities ahead of the general election, which must be held by January 2025.

The Labour mayor of Greater Manchester said the PM’s decision to scrap the northern leg – first revealed by The Independent – was a “hammer blow”, but still hopes the key section can be built.

He and others are urging the PM to bring back legislation sanctioning HS2 infrastructure so work can begin on a new link between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester airport which could be used by east-west projects across the North.

Today we will be focusing on the King’s Speech as the monarch sets out Rishi Sunak’s government’s policy agenda for the year ahead.

It will be the first such speech King Charles III has made since assuming the throne last year. It will also be the first of Mr Sunak’s tenure in No 10 – and most likely the last prior to an expected general election next year.

Mr Sunak said: “This will be the first King’s Speech in 70 years and the legislation we will bring forward is part of our plan to build a better future for the next 70.”

We take a look at the proposals which are expected to be included in the King’s Speech, at around 11.30am on Tuesday, and those which may be left out:

Right-wing Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has criticised home secretary Suella Braverman’s proposal for charities to stop giving tents to homeless rough sleepers.

“In all my years of helping people who are homeless … at no time, ever, has anyone said the answer lies in the removal of tents.”

Two of Boris Johnson’s top advisers railed against the government’s handling of Covid before joking “worst part, we have banned ourselves from going to the pub after this”.

In September 2020, Dr Ben Warner told No10 comms chief Lee Cain he felt like the pair had “walked out of Covid in June and walked back in today”.

Mr Cain told Dr Warner “agree mate, we are so fucked”, adding that the government was making the “same errors as March” – a reference to the delayed decision-making process in the early days of the pandemic.

WhatsApp messages shown to the inquiry then show Dr Warner telling his colleague: “Worst part, we have banned ourselves from going to the pub after this.”

Reporting by Archie Mitchell