‘It’s more incrementalism’: Starmer’s safe king’s speech fails to quell mutiny

For Keir Starmer’s Labour critics, his second king’s speech , in which the government set out what it would do in parliament over the next 12 to 18 months, was a crystallisation of everything that was wrong with the prime minister’s strategy. Over 34 bills and three draft ones, Starmer set out a programme he said would “make this country stronger and fairer”. But the package, which included limiting trial by jury, reshaping the NHS and moving the country closer to the EU, fell short of what some in the prime minister’s party feel is needed to win back voters’ trust. “Most of this is incrementalism,” said one Labour MP. “This sums up where we have gone wrong in the first two years in government. We talk about not going back to the status quo and then propose boosting growth by tweaking the wording of regulators’ remits.” Harry Quilter-Pinner, the head of the Institute for Public Policy Research, called for “much bolder action on the cost of living, including rent controls, alongside longer-term reforms to growth, the state, and Britain’s relationship with Europe”. Starmer is 'in office but not in power', says Kemi Badenoch – video Starmer’s legislative agenda is made up of measures that have previously been announced but for which the government has not yet found time. Some of them involve major changes to the way public services are run. An NHS modernisation bill will legislate for the abolition of NHS England which the health secretary Wes Streeting has already announced . …