King’s Speech 2026 – the bills, royal embarrassment and humiliated PM | UK | News
Wednesday’s King’s Speech is an attempt by Sir Keir Starmer to reassert his authority, with 35 bills lined up for the next parliamentary year, even as pressure from his own MPs to resign shows no signs of easing.
The legislative program covers housing, migration, energy, health and closer relations with the EU; it’s a broad canvas intended to project momentum at a moment of most acute political fragility to date.
On Tuesday night Starmer said: “British people expect the government to get on with the job of changing our country for the better.
“Reducing the cost of living, reducing hospital waiting lists and keeping our country safe in an increasingly dangerous world. Britain is at a crucial moment: pursue the plan to build a stronger, fairer country or return to the chaos and instability of the past. My government will deliver on the promise of change for the British people.”
But his remarks were largely a repeat of what he told the cabinet on Tuesday: “I take responsibility for the change we promised” as he tried to calm the authority in the midst of a domestic storm.
Did the King’s Speech embarrass King Charles?
It turned out that the ceremony was already awkward for the Palace. Royal sources told Politico that King Charles found the situation extremely uncomfortable. “It’s such a shame for the king that his government is in such disarray and that by the end of the week he still has to read something that may or may not be the government’s programme,” one of them said.
A senior Palace aide asked whether the monarch would continue, putting the question directly to government officials including Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo, according to sources familiar with the discussions cited by the Guardian. The Palace was told that it was constitutionally correct for the King to open Parliament as planned. Buckingham Palace reportedly declined to comment.
Government aides hope the grandeur of the state opening will help dissuade potential rebels from using their return to Westminster to immediately organize against the Prime Minister.
What bills are included in the King’s Speech?
The EU harmonization bill, which would allow regulations in Britain to mirror those that apply across the Channel, is one of the most politically charged measures and represents the centerpiece of Sir Keir’s European reset agenda; although Labour’s old heartlands have been described as a “cold vomit bucket” for voters living in the Red Wall north, which had largely fallen to Reform UK in the 7 May local elections.
The energy independence bill will chart a path to clean energy, drawing on advice from infrastructure expert John Fingleton to make it easier to build nuclear power plants.
Will British Steel be nationalised?
British Steel, currently in state hands, will be formally nationalized through primary legislation. The government will also introduce long-delayed rental reforms that ban the sale of new rental units; But ministers accept the changes will not come into force until the next general election.
Streeting, whose leadership ambitions have been widely voiced, will put forward a plan to abolish NHS England, a proposal he supported last year. Phillipson is tasked with legislating for the overhaul of special education needs.
Perhaps the most politically sensitive measure is the immigration bill, which would tighten the path to settled status and impose a ten-year eligibility period (twice the current threshold) on some beneficiaries. This will further restrict the ability of asylum seekers to challenge deportation decisions using their right to family life, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
For many Labor MPs, Wednesday will be their first meeting since the local election and the first opportunity to take stock of the leadership crisis that has consumed the party since election day.
