King’s Speech verdict: Keir Starmer unveils ‘change’ agenda — now he must deliver – Politics.co.uk

Politically, of course, the prime minister is riding high. Having won a historic election landslide, a full 40 per cent of Britons view Starmer favourably according to Ipsos — that’s compared to 33 per cent who take the opposite stance. As I noted over the weekend, Starmer’s new net satisfaction rating of +7 compares to -7 in the final week of the campaign itself and, rather remarkably, -13 the week before the campaign started.

It means the prime minister has political capital in relative abundance — and at a time of striking disillusion with our governing institutions no less. Duly, Starmer’s political reserves were deployed today as the King unveiled a pretty hefty legislative agenda — compared, that is, to Rishi Sunak’s thin offering back in November 2023.

Then, as now, the pomp and ceremony belie an intensely political affair. Sunak’s primary objective in the King’s Speech last year was to abruptly curtail the Conservatives’ political tailspin, restyling his government as active and reforming. Sunak failed, of course, ultimately spectacularly.

The challenge for Keir Starmer, afforded the same forum, is at once fundamentally different and strikingly similar. A King’s Speech is the epitome of any government’s “incumbency advantage” and one this PM, having finally forsaken Labour’s habit of opposition, intends to seize upon. That, in the end, is something his predecessor as prime minister — for whatever reason — never quite managed.

By the time King Charles announced Sunak’s legislative plan in November last year, the PM’s authority had all but entirely waned. Today however, Starmer’s political supremacy is beyond doubt and, the parliamentary arithmetic suggests, challenge. Charles III may wear the crown, but politically, Keir is king.

That said, there could be a few uncomfortable moments ahead for Starmer, as the substance of his government’s Speech from the Throne is waded through in parliament.

The SNP, for instance, has announced plans to table an amendment to the King’s Speech, calling on ministers to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Labour MP Kim Johnson is also reported to be tabling an amendment along these lines, which former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said he will support.

, with ex-Labour PM Gordon Brown and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also urging him to scrap it. As such, if either the SNP or Kim Johnson amendment is selected by the Speaker, the subsequent drama could drive a wedge between Starmer and some of his parliamentary rank — especially those new Scottish Labour MPs.

Moreover, Rishi Sunak, Starmer’s vanquished opponent, isn’t history — yet. As His Majesty’s leader of the opposition, a role Sunak looks set to occupy for many months still, the former PM is tasked with responding to the King’s Speech on behalf of the Conservative Party. Speaking at the opposition despatch box for the second time since the election, Sunak will pledge this afternoon not to “oppose for the sake of it”.

But he will add: “When we disagree with what the government is doing, it is our responsibility as the opposition to say so”. Read the full trail of Sunak’s comments here.

With Sunak forced to play the miserable hand he dealt himself, the ex-PM today leads his party’s rediscovery of opposition — ever torrid and rarely rewarding. Over the coming months, Sunak will need to choose which battles to fight wisely, before he is inevitably despatched to the backbench wilderness upon his successor’s election. (Read the latest Tory leadership gossip, of which there is much, here).

But the focus today is rightly on Starmer; and neither internal soundings nor Sunak’s performance will greatly stress our new PM. Rather, Starmer’s task today was to prove that his government can meaningfully thwart Britain’s mounting and interrelated crises. The speech’s weighty nature, in sum, suggests Starmer recognises the electoral stakes.

The nature of the last election underlined the increasingly transactional nature in which we lend our leaders power. The throughline of recent results, from 2019 to 2024, can be summed up in three words: deliver or else. Today, no majority — much less a landslide won with 33.8 per cent of the vote — is inherently insurmountable.

But Starmer can make it so. Political, electoral and governing incentives aligned, the new PM included the most deliverable aspects of his manifesto in the King’s Speech today — reflecting his desire to begin “the work of change” at pace.

In essence then, the King’s Speech saw Starmer embark on a curious victory lap, flaunting his ambition to an electorate that shunted him far across the finish line and now waits expectantly for results. On these terms now set, Starmer must deliver. Or else.

Lunchtime briefing

King’s Speech 2024: Full list of bills

Labour ‘must deliver change’, Rishi Sunak to stress

Tom Tugendhat says the Conservative Party must ‘rediscover moral leadership’

Lunchtime soundbite

‘The snake oil charm of populism may sound seductive, but it drives us into the dead end of further division and greater disappointment’

— Writing in his introduction to the King’s Speech, Keir Starmer warns against the “snake oil charm of populism” as he declared the “era of politics as performance” over.

Now try this…

‘Rishi Sunak “risked breaching legal responsibilities over prison crisis”’
The Guardian reports

‘“Is that it?” UK Labour’s cautious entry to government’
Politico’s Esther Webber writes.

‘Starmer’s people are returning class to the centre of politics’
The New Statesman’s George Eaton writes that the prime minister’s class-conscious and interventionist government owes more to Harold Wilson than to Tony Blair. (Paywall)

On this day in 2023:

Cooper stresses fiscal restraint amid Labour row over two-child benefit cap