King’s Speech: Charles unveils Keir Starmer’s plans for Britain, in state

CNN
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Keir Starmer, Britain’s new prime minister, pitched himself as an antidote to “the snake oil charm of populism” on Wednesday, unveiling sweeping plans to target housebuilding, crime, illegal migration and a breakdown in public trust during the first ceremonial King’s Speech of his government.

King Charles III formally opened a new session of parliament by reading out Starmer’s agenda at a grandiose event that brings together Britain’s royal pageantry and political class, two weeks after his landslide landslide election win brought a 14-year era of Conservative rule to an emphatic end.

The speech focused on Starmer’s central slogan of “national renewal,” and included pledges to nationalize Britain’s railways, tackle a housing crisis by changing planning laws to build more affordable homes, and intensifying efforts to tackle illegal migration.

Starmer more broadly took swipes at the Tory governments that had ruled Britain since 2010, and at the swell of populism that has rippled across the UK and Europe, attempting to lay claim to Britain’s center ground with a public push for pragmatism.

“No more wedge issues. No more gimmicks,” Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons as debate on his agenda began, insisting his government would “solve problems, not exploit them.”

“The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era,” Starmer said.

His 40-bill agenda includes measures crafted to appeal to both older and younger generations, as Starmer seeks to maintain the broad coalition of voters that put him into Downing Street earlier this month. But his introduction to that agenda also contained an effort to counteract the rise of populism in the UK and Europe. “The snake oil charm of populism may sound seductive, but it drives us into the dead end of further division and greater disappointment,” Starmer said.

While the speech fleshed out some of the growth-orientated vision Starmer pitched during the summer’s election campaign, it was light on details on other areas, including how Starmer would meaningfully bolster Britain’s border security after an election campaign disrupted by public concern over small boat crossings to the UK.

And Starmer opted to swerve some of the thornier constitutional and voting changes he had pledged to make during the campaign, including an upper age limit on peers allowed to sit in the House of Lords, and the lowering of the voting age to 16.

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