Charles to present UK Govt agenda as Starmer faces pressure
King Charles III, on Wednesday, will deliver the British Government’s legislative programme for the coming year to lawmakers with all the pomp and historic trappings that accompany the ceremonial opening of Parliament.
The question is whether Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be around to implement it and, even if he remains in post, whether he will have the authority to push his proposals through. The embattled prime minister has been urged to set a timetable for his departure by more than a fifth of the Labour Party’s lawmakers in the House of Commons.
Some junior ministers have quit the Government in protest, but no one has yet challenged Starmer directly.
Early on Wednesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who is one of those widely tipped to be interested in succeeding Starmer, had a meeting with the prime minister that lasted less than 20 minutes. Streeting did not speak to reporters on his way in or out of 10 Downing Street. Streeting is widely expected to break his silence after the King’s Speech, which represents Starmer’s latest effort to save his premiership after Labour suffered huge losses in local and regional elections last week.
If those results were repeated in a national election that has to be held by 2029, the party would be overwhelmingly ejected from power. Labour secured a landslide election victory in 2024, driving the Conservatives from power after 14 years, but since then the party’s popularity has plunged and Starmer is getting much of the blame.
The reasons include a series of policy missteps, a struggling British economy, a perceived lack of vision on the prime minister’s part and questions over his judgment.
Starmer’s choice of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington despite ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has continued to haunt him.
