Rishi Sunak has pushed the King’s Speech back for a reason

By autumn – so the PM’s thinking goes – the light at the end of the tunnel will be visible, writes Andrew Woodcock

The first King’s Speech will be a bid to draw a line under the horrors of the current period and present Sunak as the right man to take the UK forward (Reuters)

A little procedural change, slipped out quietly by Rishi Sunak on Thursday, has delivered an insight into his plans for the next general election.

The King’s Speech setting out the government’s agenda for the coming year – the first to be delivered by Charles III in his own right, after he stood in for his mother last year – has been put back from springtime to the autumn of 2023.

Downing Street aides say that this is because they have a packed schedule of legislation to get through in a limited time (with the unspoken implication that a lot of that time was wasted during the two leadership battles of 2022, when government business almost ground to a halt).