Keir Starmer sets out changes to education, health and courts in king’s speech | King’s speech

Keir Starmer sought to reassert his authority over his restive party on Wednesday and laid out his plans for the next parliamentary session, as speculation grew that he would be called into office on Thursday.

Starmer announced his second king’s speech as prime minister and promised a package of measures including bills to abolish NHS England, overhaul the provision of special educational needs education, limit jury trials, introduce digital ID and end the rental system in England and Wales.

The Prime Minister is promising to immediately start working on his legislative agenda, introducing a bill that would restrict the ability of people in England to buy their own council homes in a bid to increase the country’s affordable housing stock.

The changes will exempt social homes from the right-to-buy scheme for 35 years, with only rent-paying tenants who have lived there for 10 years eligible.

But their plans risk being derailed almost immediately, with health secretary Wes Streeting expected to resign on Thursday in a bid to trigger a leadership race.

Starmer called on MPs to stay the course, promising changes that would make Britain “stronger and fairer”. “This is an agenda of radical reform of our core public services, an urgent activist Labor government that gives power back to workers,” he told the Commons.

However, he came under criticism from his own MPs for some elements of the package; these included changes to the immigration system that would make it harder to appeal asylum denial. The bill forms part of a wider plan by home affairs minister Shabana Mahmood to curb legal and illegal immigration, including doubling the time it takes for some people to be given permission to stay in the country indefinitely.

Rachael Maskell, Labor MP for York Central, said: “I would urge the government to protect the rights of those with indefinite leave to remain, while new communities work alongside established communities.”

Clapham and Brixton Hill MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: “Today’s proposals pale in comparison [with what is needed]“Both because we have heard this so many times before and because it lacks the urgency and radical transformation that we absolutely need.”

There were few surprises in the king’s 11-and-a-half-minute speech, which marked the official opening of the government’s second parliamentary session.

In his speech, the King said: “My government believes that the UK’s economic security depends on raising living standards throughout the UK. My ministers will support measures that maintain stability and control the cost of living.”

The speech included a range of measures that ministers hope will boost economic growth, including a bill that would pave the way for the adoption of European regulations that are part of the prime minister’s plan to move closer to the EU. Another will force regulators to take growth into account when creating and enforcing rules for business.

Starmer is promising two big changes to housing in England and Wales: a bill to make it harder for people to buy their own council homes and a bill to end the rental system. The rent bill will ban new flats from being sold as rental properties, although housing minister Matthew Pennycook recently said the ban would not become law until after the next election.

The package will also introduce several bills aimed at fixing major problems in public services, including long NHS waiting lists, major court backlogs and the rising costs of providing special educational needs support.

Streeting will follow through on the health secretary’s promise last year to introduce legislation to dismantle NHS England, with the process already underway.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson will legislate changes to the special educational needs provision which she outlined in a speech earlier this year. Under the changes, fewer people will be able to benefit from education, health and care plans, but schools will have greater responsibility for deciding how students with special educational needs should be taught.

Ministers will also introduce legislation to introduce digital ID for the first time as a way to check people’s immigration status when they take a new job, but ID will not be mandatory after the prime minister abandoned a key element of his plans.