King's Speech details UK govt's ambitions

Law and order measures will be at the center of the United Kingdom government's political agenda in the coming year after the King's Speech in Parliament began the countdown to the country's next general election.

The State Opening of Parliament ceremony, which features the monarch reading out the government's aims for the next 12 months, was the first to be attended by King Charles III in his own right, although he had previously deputized for his late mother the queen, and it was also the first with Rishi Sunak as prime minister.

A general election is widely expected to take place in or before fall next year, with the United States' presidential election, which takes place in early November, possibly influencing its timing.

With just 21 pieces of legislation outlined in the speech, and highly contentious issues such as tighter measures to crack down on rough sleepers, the consensus was that it was a light speech, rather than a bold plan of action.

The king spoke of "the difficult but necessary long-term decisions to change this country for the better".

Law and order measures unveiled in the speech, written by the prime minister's office but delivered by the monarch, who is politically impartial, included steps to increase the chances of particularly violent killers spending the whole of the rest of their life in prison, and also for "reasonable force" to be made permissible to ensure criminals appear in court.

Conversely, with prison overcrowding growing ever greater, there are also plans for most sentences of less than 12 months to be suspended.

With the election looming, anyone expecting Sunak to come up with bold policy statements to mark clear differences between him and Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, which is consistently higher than the Conservative Party government in opinion polls, was disappointed.

As one government minister told the Financial Times: "I think there will be a moment when Rishi does some bold stuff and throws out some 'red meat', but this wasn't that moment."

A Labour Party representative called the legislative proposals "a pretty pathetic program of tinkering", and there was speculation after that the speech may even have hinted that Sunak plans to call an election in the spring, earlier than anticipated.

"A senior Labour MP and close ally of Keir Starmer tells me Labour MPs are now speculating that Govt's 'light' program of legislation, only 20 or so bills including many carried over, suggests Rishi Sunak is plotting early general election in May next year," wrote Sky News chief political correspondent Jon Craig on social media platform X.