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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Your support makes all the difference.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.
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Rishi Sunak to set out ‘vision of a better Britain’ at King’s Speech
Senior Tory bemoans failure to regulate AI
Greg Clark, the Tory chair of the science select committee, has condemned the “disappointing” failure to include an AI bill that would help regulate the sector.
“This new session of parliament will be the last opportunity to pass significant legislation before the general election, and in all likelihood, before 2025,” he said.
Despite the hullabaloo of the Bletchley Park summit, Mr Clark said 2025 “may by then be too late for the UK to differentiate itself in any meaningful way”.
Olivia Pratt Korbel’s mother emotional as King’s Speech announces laws forcing killers to attend sentencing
Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mother became emotional after discussing new laws to ensure criminals attend their sentencing hearings which were included in the King’s Speech, my colleague Holly Patrick reports.
Thomas Cashman was jailed for life after he shot and killed Cheryl Korbel’s nine-year-old daughter at her home in Liverpool, on 22 August 2022. He refused to come up to the dock when he was sentenced.
Ms Korbel told Good Morning Britain the “silence” is the hardest part of her life since her daughter was killed and praised the proposed law change as “a very important step forward.”
‘Cheap electioneering’ with nothing for workers, say unions
Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:
The TUC has described the legislative plans in the King’s Speech as “cheap electioneering” and “a desperate last throw of the dice”.
General secretary Paul Nowak said the Tories were “attacking people’s fundamental right to strike” with the plan to expand minimum service levels.
He added: “Instead of fixing our crumbling public services the government is trying to blame paramedics, teachers and other key workers for their failures.”
Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, said it was “a missed opportunity to show working people that the government understands the pressures” from the cost of living crisis.
“There was nothing in this speech to deliver the jobs, investment and hope … This is now clearly a lame duck administration for workplace rights.”
Unison’s general secretary Christina McAnea said: “This is a government with nothing left to offer. There was little announced today that will make the slightest bit of difference to the many real and deep-seated problems the country faces.”
Watch: Ban on cigarettes for future generations confirmed in King’s Speech
No 10 dodges questions on whether ban on tents for homeless could be legislated
Downing Street has declined to say whether action to try and prevent people sleeping on the streets in tents would eventually be included in the Criminal Justice Bill
The Bill, as set out in the King’s Speech, did not feature a proposal from home secretary Suella Braverman to ban charities from handing out tents to the homeless – plans which have sparked outrage among experts and fellow Tory MPs since she first raised them last week.
Asked whether this could still be added, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters at a Westminster briefing: “It’s not for me to get into setting out the details of what will or will not be included.
“We’ve set out our focus for this Bill already. As with all these Bills, there will be further details set out when they are brought to the House.
“We’ve said that no-one should be criminalised for having nowhere to live and we are repealing the outdated Vagrancy Act. We want to go as far as possible to ensure that those who are vulnerable can get the support they need and obviously at the same time cracking down on anti-social, intimidating or indeed criminal behaviour.”
‘Total moral failure’ on conversion therapy ban, says ex-adviser
Jayne Ozanne, the former government LGBT+ adviser who now leads the Ban Conversion Therapy coalition, is angry at Rishi Sunak for ditching the promised ban on efforts to change people’s sexuality or gender identity.
“To break your flagship promise to a community that has seen a significant rise in hate crime is a total moral failure,” she told The Independent. “To do so after five years of posturing, with minimal engagement with victims of ‘conversion therapy’, shows just how callously the government treats LGBT+ lives.
Ozanne added: “The prime minister’s failure to act will be remembered for years to come, it will take generations for LGBT+ people to trust his party again.”
Deputy PM to lead Cobra meeting
Oliver Dowden will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee to consider the impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the UK.
Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said “it will look a wide range of areas but it’s obviously particularly focused on the impact of the terrorist attack on the UK domestically” and how to address important issues around “community cohesion”.
‘No proper ambition’ from government, says Labour
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government’s legislative programme was “thin” and lacked “proper ambition”.
She told Sky News there was “no serious plan on growth, no serious plan on the cost of living crisis, no serious plan to tackle the waiting lists in the NHS”.
Ms Cooper also accused Rishi Sunak of presiding over “chaos”, adding: “This lot are total chaos and it's really damaging and unfair for the country.”
Sunak plan is ‘ambitious', insists former Tory minister
Senior Tory Andrea Leadsom told The Independent: “I thought the King’s Speech was ambitious in seeking to make an improvement in people’s lives – from the law and order measures, including making sure people who have committed horrendous crimes serve full life sentences, to the renters reform bill and leasehold bill which will be valuable in giving people greater security in their home.”
The former cabinet minister added: “The energy security measures get the balance right between keeping the lights on and keeping the bills down whilst still decarbonising faster than any other G7 nation.”
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