{"id":581366,"date":"2026-05-13T08:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581366\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:30:12","slug":"king-charles-iii-will-lay-out-uk-government-agenda-as-starmers-job-hangs-in-the-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581366\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles III will lay out UK government agenda as Starmer’s job hangs in the balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2013 King Charles III<\/a> on Wednesday will deliver the government\u2019s legislative program for the coming year to lawmakers with all the pomp and historic trappings that accompany the ceremonial opening of Britain’s Parliament.<\/p>\n

The question is whether Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> will be around to implement it and, even if he survives the latest government crisis, whether he will have the authority to push his proposals through Parliament.<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s speech will be Starmer\u2019s second attempt to save his premiership after his Labour Party suffered huge losses in local and regional elections last week. That weakened his already tenuous grip on power and fueled calls for him to step down from members of his own party who believe Starmer has been too timid in attacking the rising cost of living, wealth inequality and the country\u2019s creaking public services.<\/p>\n

The pressure on Starmer has only increased since a Monday speech to party supporters, promoted as the first leg of his fight back. But it was criticized as \u201ctone deaf\u201d and lacking the bold policies needed to tackle Britain\u2019s problems. Former Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips resigned from the Cabinet on Tuesday, saying the government needed to \u201chave a row, push back, make arguments, bring people along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historic power collides with modern reality<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s Speech will be a moment when the historic power and grandeur of Britain will collide with the reality of the modern United Kingdom<\/a>, a mid-sized country with an underfunded military, rising debt and waning international influence. It’s a country struggling to control immigration and pay for public services such as health care and education.<\/p>\n

The speech is just one element of the state opening of Parliament, a traditional set piece of the political calendar that uses carefully choreographed pageantry to showcase Britain\u2019s evolution from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary democracy where real power is vested in the elected House of Commons.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s edition will be closely watched because of Starmer\u2019s precarious position.<\/p>\n

The speech is likely to take on cost of living crisis<\/p>\n

The speech is expected to include proposals to address the cost of living crisis, create a national wealth fund to stimulate private investment in public infrastructure and tighten rules for asylum seekers. It may also include the government\u2019s controversial proposal to abolish jury trials for some cases in England and Wales<\/a>, lower the voting age to 16 and introduce a \u201cduty of candor\u201d for public officials, requiring them to tell the truth and cooperate with investigations.<\/p>\n

The problem for Starmer is that many of the proposals expected to appear in the speech have been announced previously. That raises the question of whether he will be able to win over his doubters.<\/p>\n

Even so, the speech is the focal point of a day of ceremony and tradition that has been followed since 1852, with elements of the program dating to the 16th century.<\/p>\n

King Charles III visits the Commons<\/p>\n

The monarch traditionally travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament, a distance of less than a mile, in a horse-drawn carriage. He then dons the Imperial State Crown and robe of state before leading a procession into the chamber of the unelected House of Lords.<\/p>\n

A Lords official called Black Rod, named for the ebony rod he or she carries, then goes to the House of Commons to summon the chamber\u2019s members to a joint sitting of Parliament. The doors to the Commons chamber are slammed in Black Rod\u2019s face to symbolize the chamber\u2019s independence from the monarchy, and they aren\u2019t opened until Black Rod strikes the doors three times.<\/p>\n

Once members of the Commons have crowded into the Lords\u2019 chamber, the king delivers a speech written by the government and laying out its legislative program for the coming session of Parliament.<\/p>\n

After the speech is read and the king leaves, the two houses of Parliament begin several days of debate on its contents.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 King Charles III on Wednesday will deliver the government\u2019s legislative program for the coming year to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,92799,420,984,50,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-581366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-jess-phillips","tag-keir-starmer","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581366","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=581366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}