King Charles has unveiled the government's legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session, with a package of bills that includes radical reforms to the House of Lords, education, health, and the courts. The king's speech, delivered on Wednesday, outlined plans to abolish NHS England, overhaul special educational needs provision, limit jury trials, introduce digital ID, and end the leasehold system in England and Wales.
The government is also proposing changes to the right-to-buy scheme, exempting social homes from the policy for 35 years and requiring tenants to have lived and paid rent for 10 years before becoming eligible. This is part of a broader effort to boost affordable housing stock.
However, the prime minister's agenda faces immediate threats, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting expected to resign on Thursday to trigger a leadership contest. Starmer appealed to MPs to stay the course, promising reforms to make Britain 'stronger and fairer'. He described the package as 'an agenda of radical reform across our major public services, an urgent activist Labour government that tilts power back to workers'.
The speech also included measures to curb migration, making it harder to appeal asylum rejections and doubling the time for some to gain indefinite leave to remain. Labour MPs Rachael Maskell and Bell Ribeiro-Addy criticised the plans, with Ribeiro-Addy stating the offering 'lacks the urgency and radical transformation we need'.
On economic growth, the government will lay groundwork to adopt European regulations and force regulators to consider growth when making rules. The leasehold bill will ban new flats being sold as leasehold, though the housing minister said it would not be enacted until after the next election.
In education, fewer people will be eligible for education, health and care plans, but schools will have more responsibility for pupils with special educational needs. A digital ID will be introduced for checking immigration status when starting a new job, though it will not be mandatory.
