The King’s speech wagers everything on EU alignment as Streeting threatens a contest
By johnredwood on May 14, 2026
What a mess! The PM agrees to a short meeting on King’s Speech day with his Health Secretary. Someone tells the Times Streeting will call a contest today. We read he did not want to go public yesterday to overshadow the Speech, yet someone in the know tipped off the papers to ensure the Speech was overshadowed. There was no early or any denial from Streeting which any loyal Cabinet member would immediately put out.
So the King read out a turgid long list of lifeless Bills, many of them repeats of old themes whilst Ministers had their minds on questions of whether to run, who to support, how to keep their jobs.
Many of these Bills if pursued are troubled. What can another Steel nationalisation Bill do to correct the folly of the last one that failed to agree transfer of the plant from the Chinese owners or agree to who has to pay off old debts?
What will a new Water Regulator do differently to the current one? Why cant the government just issue better instructions to Ofwat? Why persist with widely loathed digital ID, a solution in search of a problem? What will be yet another Criminal Justice Bill?
The worst Bill and the centre of the economic and constitutional struggle is the EU re set Bill. Based on the wrong notion that we could boost trade with the EU to boost growth, it will lock us into more bad laws, put up energy prices and taxes, invite in many more young people in need of jobs and hones we do not have, and put up spending to give them money we cannot afford.
The King is told to read out a programme based on EU re set
By johnredwood on May 13, 2026
The PM is allowed to use the full dignity of the sovereign to launch his programme for the next session of Parliament. Lords and Commons have to listen without comment, before the PM sets it out in more detail to the Commons at the start of a five day set of debates in both Houses, when the Opposition can reply.
This year the King has been placed in a difficult position setting out a programme for a PM struggling to keep his job and to keep a majority of votes for his plans. It will be made far worse by having at its heart a dangerous constitutional Bill seeking to give back control over many of our laws and some of our money to the EU against the clear mandate of the referendum.
The PM wants the EU to take much of our fish, to decide on student support to allow more EU students to come to the UK at our expense, and to require us to adopt many of their farming, trade and business laws. He wants us to face higher energy costs by adopting the EU carbon tax and emissions trading scheme, He wants us to impose an EU like tariff or carbon border tax on non EU imports. He wants us to accept more people under 30 to come here looking for jobs, homes and benefits. He wants us to pay them for this by sending money to the EU.
No wonder Labour lost so many seats and votes in Brexit favouring parts of England. The PM should not be giving our sovereignty away. This is an abuse of our King in Parliament.