King’s Speech – live: New laws on oil, smoking and football as Charles III makes first State Opening
Seven pieces of legislation will be carried over into the next parliamentary session
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A raft of new laws – including measures on oil and gas licences, the establishment of a new football regulator, and moves to phase out cigarette smoking – have been included in the King’s Speech.
The proposed legislation was announced by King Charles III as he addressed Parliament in his first State Opening, as the monarch set out Rishi Sunak’s government’s policy agenda for the year ahead.
It is the first such speech King Charles III has made since assuming the throne last year. It is also the first of Mr Sunak’s tenure in No 10 – and most likely the last prior to an expected general election next year.
The speech revealed Mr Sunak’s plans to make law and order a key election battleground, with a series of measures promising tougher sentences for killers and rapists.
Mr Sunak has also introduced new legislation to expand the use of self-driving vehicles – which clear the way for buses and lorries to operate autonomously by the end of the decade.
Watch: Covid taskforce ‘blindsided’ by Eat out to Help Out scheme, Covid inquiry told
Away from the Commons for a moment, here is a snippet from the former Covid taskforce chief Simon Ridley’s testimony to the ongoing Covid inquiy, which will make awkward listening for the current PM:
Tory MP ‘angry and frustrated’ at broken promise on conversion therapy ban
Tory MP Elliot Colburn told The Independent he was “angry and frustrated” at Rishi Sunak’s decision to drop the promised ban on conversion therapy.
The backbencher also said he was “very confident” there was enough Tory MPs willing to rebel on the issue and work with opposition parties to get the ban through parliament.
“It’s complete mistake,” said Mr Colburn. “I’m angry and frustrated. It’s a promised been made many times, and we’re back in the wilderness. We delivered Brexit quicker than we delivered this.”
He added: “We know there’s a criminal justice bill – and that’s a perfect opportunity to table amendments to try to get this into law. We are looking at other mechanisms. I would be confident the numbers are there [to defeat the government. I think the whips could be surprised … at how difficult a job they have on their hands.”
Braverman ‘capable of upending everything’, says Peter Mandelson
Former Labour cabinet minister Peter Mandelson has told The Times’ How To Win an Election podcast that Suella Braverman is a “born disruptor” amid controversy over her remarks on homelessness and “hate marches”.
“What she wants to do is to follow in the trail of Johnson and Truss as the person capable of upending everything in sight, disrupting the established order, trading against the elite.”
Tory peer Daniel Finkelstein said Ms Braverman was trying to “push as far as she possibly can, probably without getting the sack”.
He added: “What she wants to be is the outrider. And what she wants to be is the right-wing candidate of the next leadership election. So this is not is not aimed at Rishi Sunak… It’s more aimed at Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly.”
Housing commitments in King’s Speech ‘ring hollow’, says IPPR expert
The government’s promises to protect renters “ring hollow” without plans to abolish no-fault evictions outright contained within the King’s Speech, a leading think-tank has said.
“Leasehold is an archaic and unfair part of the UK housing system. Although the plan to ban leaseholds on new houses is welcome as a step in the right direction, the real issue is with what wasn’t announced,” said Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at IPPR.
“The announcement does not cover new flats, which make up 70 per cent of leaseholds in England.
“The promise to protect renters, but without abolishing Section 21 ’no fault’ evictions outright, rings hollow when people are at risk of eviction now.”
Watch: Keir Starmer warns PM about home secretary
Sunak has left LGBT community ‘at mercy of bigots and quacks’, says senior Tory
Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:
Senior Tory MP Alicia Kearns told The Independent that Rishi Sunak’s decision to “leave LGBT people at the mercy of bigots and quacks is deeply disappointing” and “flies in the face of promises made from the despatch box”.
“Everyone understands that a conversion therapy ban would be complex, but surely we have confidence that the British parliament is capable of rising to that challenge?” said the chair of the foreign affairs select committee.
Ms Kearns added: “I will continue to work with the majority of MPs who want to see this practice ended for good, and call on the government to do the right thing.”
‘Proper investment’ into criminal justice system needed to enforce harsher sentences, say barristers
The government must invest more into the criminal justice system if it is serious about increasing sentences for rape and murder, the Criminal Bar Association has warned in response to the measures outlined in the King’s Speech.
With court backlogs at a record high, and many prisons already well over capacity, Tana Adkin KC – chair of the group representing criminal barristers – said: “Expressing a commitment to harsher sentences and served to term for serious criminal offences only works if there is proper investment in the prison estate and the rest of the criminal justice system.
“Proper investment has been lacking for years to support other sentencing options to free up prison spaces for those that need to be in prison.
“If we want prison sentences to work, government must invest in the infrastructure – but more importantly the people in the criminal justice system – to ensure we have the capacity to punish wrongdoers, deter others and rehabilitate those who are imprisoned at great cost to the taxpayer as well as themselves and their families.”
King’s Speech must have really stuck in Charles’ throat, says Green Party
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “This King’s Speech, which must have really stuck in the throat of King Charles, demonstrates a government out of ideas and out of touch. There’s nothing in it to offer communities any hope with the cost of living crisis or the growing impacts of the climate emergency.
“Instead, Rishi Sunak has decided: when in a climate hole, keep digging. Pushing for new oil and gas drilling licences is an act of environmental vandalism.
“Encouraging energy giants to exploit fossil fuel reserves they then sell on the global market at global prices cannot provide either security or cheaper energy bills. Even the government’s own Energy Security, Claire Coutinho, had to admit that the government’s plan to require annual oil and gas licensing in the North Sea offers no guarantee of keeping energy bills down.
“With the Conservatives now looking increasingly like a zombie government today is a big challenge for Labour. Will they pledge to undo the damage inflicted on the climate by the Conservatives today and commit to not a single new oil and gas licence from day one of a Labour government?”
Watch: SNP politician criticises 'pomp' of King's Speech amid cost of living crisis
‘Serious omission’ on indefinite prison sentences in King’s Speech, expert warns
An expert has warned of a “serious omission” in the King’s Speech to commit to leglislating on the thousands of people still stuck serving indefinite prison sentences, in a hangover from the last Labour government.
“We are troubled to see no commitment to legislate on IPPs in the speech despite the justice secretary’s stated intention to do so, and hope this serious omission can be swiftly rectified,” said Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust.
Ms Sinha also warned that the government’s plans to send UK prisoners abroad to serve their sentences is “a startling admission of the hole the government has dug itself on prison capacity, largely as a consequence of ill thought through punitive justice policies”.
She added: “This parliament also inherits a victims bill from the previous session, saddled with controversial changes to the parole system which undermine judicial independence and the vital role of the Parole Board in assessing risk.”
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