The state opening will begin at 09:30 when the royal bodyguards, known as the Yeoman of the Guard, conduct a ceremonial search of the cellars of the Palace of Westminster for explosives.<\/p>\n
This commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in which a group of English Catholics failed to blow up Parliament and kill the Protestant king.<\/p>\n
An MP will also be ceremonially taken “hostage” in Buckingham Palace while the King attends Parliament. This is designed to ensure the monarch’s safe return.<\/p>\n
A government whip known as the vice-chamberlain of the household traditionally performs this task and the position is currently held by Labour MP Sir Nic Dakin.<\/p>\n
The royal procession travels from Buckingham Palace to the Sovereign’s Entrance at Parliament, with a military escort.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the Ministry of Defence said more than 1,100 military personnel and almost 200 horses took part.<\/p>\n
The King will later lead the royal procession to the chamber of the House of Lords and he will deliver the speech, usually at around 11:30.<\/p>\n
Before he starts, Black Rod – a senior officer in the Lords – will be sent to the House of Commons to summon the MPs.<\/p>\n
The door to the Commons chamber is shut in Black Rod’s face and he will strike it three times before it is opened, a tradition said to symbolise the independence of the Commons from the monarch.<\/p>\n
MPs will file through Central Lobby to the Lords, with as many as possible watching the King’s Speech from the bar of the House – a railing marking the boundary beyond which visitors may not pass when the House is at work. <\/p>\n
Other MPs will stay behind in the Commons, with some watching the speech on their phones or tablets.<\/p>\n
MPs will hold several days of debate on the King’s Speech from 14:30 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A long-serving MP and a relative newcomer to the Commons usually make speeches, with Conservative Party leader Badenoch third up before Sir Keir addresses the chamber.<\/p>\n
It will be the first opportunity for MPs to attempt to question the PM in the Commons since last week’s elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state opening will begin at 09:30 when the royal bodyguards, known as the Yeoman of the Guard,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-580677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}