Parliament prorogued last week and restarts with the King’s Speech on 13 May. The content of that Speech will be the first signal of how the government has processed what is about to happen on Thursday.
The King’s Speech on 13 May opens the second session of this Parliament, the first since the elections that, on current polling, will deliver the most significant political shock to the governing party since its 2024 landslide.
The legislative pipeline for the new session already has several confirmed or widely expected bills: an Energy Independence Bill, a Courts and Tribunals Bill on jury trial reform, a Data Protection Reform Bill simplifying the post-Brexit data protection framework, a Border Security and Immigration Bill targeting small boat crossings, and a Mental Health Bill reforming the 1983 Act.
But the political context of the Speech will be shaped entirely by Thursday’s results. The King’s Speech is a political document as much as a legislative programme. It signals priorities. It responds to opposition. It attempts to reassure those whose support the government needs.
A catastrophic night for Labour, Stephen Fisher of Oxford University has projected Labour losing up to 1,900 councillors, which would be the worst result in the party’s history, creates a specific political problem for the Speech. The government must demonstrate it has understood why voters are leaving, without abandoning the programme it was elected on less than two years ago.
That tension, between reassurance and continuity, between responding to Reform-leaning deserters and Green-leaning deserters simultaneously, is not one that a single King’s Speech can easily resolve. The two groups of deserters want almost opposite things.
Watch for these signals on 13 May: whether the border security bill is placed prominently (response to Reform), whether any housing or planning measures appear (response to younger voters), whether any public services investment is announced (response to those who expected more from Labour), and whether the government’s language shifts toward anything resembling accountability for the results of the previous night.
The Speech will tell you what Keir Starmer thinks happened on Thursday, and what he thinks he needs to do about it.
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