Downing Street has now confirmed that Wes Streeting is still health secretary. The PM’s spokesperson told reporters the prime minister has “full confidence” in the health secretary.
Key events
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Starmer says a complete break from the status quo is needed.
double quotation markOur response this time must and will be different, a complete break.
We will not simply slump back to the old ways, because this king’s speech gives us the strength we need, the economic security, energy security and national security to control our future in a chaotic world.
It is an agenda of radical reform across our major public services, an urgent activist Labour government that tilts power back to workers.
ShareStarmer claims king’s speech ‘strike against status quo that has failed working people’
Moving to the substance of his speech, Starmer says:
double quotation markThis king’s speech is a strike against the status quo that has failed working people.
It’s a king’s speech for the young people whose gifts lie in their hands, who work hard, want their talents to be recognised and just want an opportunity in their community.
A king’s speech for the children who, under the party opposite, had to go to school without breakfast, hungry, cold and tired when they should be focused on their learning.
And it’s a king’s speech for the backbone of this country, for working people who worry about the cost of living, want their town centres are thrive, their public services to work, their government to be on their side.
ShareStarmer mocks Badenoch over her claim election results were positive for Tories
Starmer also pays tribute to Badenoch. He jokes sarcastically about “the usual warm and generous nature” of her contribution.
“Her input is always a ray of sunshine,” he says.
He goes on:
double quotation markWe do have one thing in common. Our parties both had tough results in the local elections last week. The difference is she hasn’t noticed.
That is a reference to Badenoch claiming (in the face of most of the evidence) that the results showed the Tories were “coming back”.
Keir Starmer is speaking now.
As is conventional, he stats with tributes – generous and sincere – to Naz Shah and Chris Vince.
Referring to Vince being beaten in the marathon by Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, he jokes that it is no shame being beaten by someone “whose training was so extensive that involved it running all the way from North West Durham [Holden’s former seat] to Billericay [the one Holden parachuted himself into just before the 2024 election].”
ShareBadenoch says Farage not cause of UK’s problems, but ‘symptom of failure of political class to .. . fix problems’
Badenoch said that MPs have to face up the fact people are angry with them.
double quotation markIt is time to be brutally honest. The country is angry with the entire political class. All of us here. They are not happy with how we have been doing politics. It is time to get serious.
She said Labour MPs should not be scared of Nigel Farage. She wasn’t, she claimed. She went on:
double quotation mark[Farage] is not the cause of Britain’s problems. He is a symptom …
He is a symptom of the failure of the political class to focus on what matters. If you fix, if you fix the problems that people care about, he goes away.
Badenoch turns to potential leadership candidates.
She says Angela Rayner has “given up vaping but still hasn’t paid her taxes”.
She says Wes Streeting “accidentally sent his takeover plans to No 10”.
She says Andy Burnham claims to be a winner, but he has “twice failed to win the Labour leadership, including against [Jeremy Corbyn].
She says is it no surprise one Labour MP (quoted anoymously on the BBC this morning) described all the candidates as “[fucking] useless”.
ShareBadenoch claims Labour’s legacy will be just ‘breakfast clubs and Peter Mandelson’
Badenoch says there is nothing in the king’s speech to cut government spending.
And she claims there is nothing to help business.
She claims she feels sorry for Labour MPs. They came to the Commons with high hopes. But the government “descended into total chaos”.
double quotation markThey face the realisation that their legacy is just going to be breakfast clubs and Peter Mandelson.
Labour MPs have been treated as disposable by their leadership, sacked for backing the two child benefit cap, sacked for opposing welfare changes, sacked for supporting farmers.
The prime minister then U-turned on all of them. It must be tough when you take a principled stand and have the whip removed, only for the government to confirm six months later that they agreed with you.
Badenoch says she welcomes the government’s support for Ukraine.
And she welcomes the plans to speed up infrastructure developments.
She also praises Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary. She goes on:
double quotation mark[Mahmood] is trying to do something about illegal immigration.
But the elephant in the room is that she almost certainly won’t be home secretary for much longer.
Sadly, no one else in the Labour party looks remotely interested in bringing down illegal immigration.
Badenoch says there is a line in the musical Hamilton, “winning is easy, governing is harder.” Labour is an example of that.
She goes on:
double quotation markEverything that has gone wrong in Labour’s first two years comes back to one problem. They came into office with no plan. They did not understand the difference between winning an election and governing a country.
It was very easy to make promises in opposition, promises to freeze council tax, promises to take £300 of energy bills, promises to the Waspi women. Hundreds of Labour MPs took photos with them to post on their Facebook pages and their websites and their election leaflets, but at no point did they bother to think how would they deliver any of it?
She says Britain has “an ageing population, a falling birthrate and a welfare bill that is spiralling out of control”.
She says Labour is failing to meet its housing targets.
Dismissing Labour MPs, she says:
double quotation markLook at them. They are so arrogant. They want to lead our country. They can’t even lead a coup.
She says there were 24 government U-turns in the last session of parliament.
double quotation markAnd every single one of these U-turns had, at its core, a single issue. The prime minister’s total lack of judgment.
This is a man who, faced with a crisis of vision, charisma and electoral success, sent for Gordon Brown.
She says that no Labour MP has tried to intervene on her. It is because they don’t dare, she says.
ShareBadenoch claims Starmer ‘in office, but not in power’
Badenoch moves into the serious part of her speech.
double quotation markThe prime minister is in office, but not in power.
Everyone is trying to pretend it’s all right. It’s not all right.
In the past 48 hours, nearly 100 Labour MPs have called for the prime minister to resign. Four ministers have quit.
It is clear his authority has gone and that he will not be able to deliver what little there is in this king’s speech.
This is a government less than two years in office, which has already run out of ideas and run out of road.
ShareBadenoch says parliament will be ‘poorer’ without hereditary peers
Badenoch says this session of parliament will be the first without the hereditary peers.
She says their departure will be “keenly felt” and parliament will be “poorer” without them.
(It is rare to hear a politician defend the hereditary principle these days, but Badenoch will do it. She posted this long message about the value of hereditary peers in this post on social media last month.)
Badenoch congratulates Naz Shah and Chris Vince on their speeches.
And she praises the king for his contribution today, and for what he achieved on his state visit. She goes on:
double quotation mark[The king’s speech to Congress] was a speech full of the wisdom and courage needed for our times.
Of course, we would never have got to hear it if we’d listen to some people in this house who called for the king’s visit to be cancelled.
But thank goodness no one listens to the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
ShareBadenoch starts her speech joking govenment whips did well to find two MPs who back PM to speak in debate
Kemi Badenoch is speaking now.
She says the king’s speech took place against an extraordinary backdrop. We did not even know if there would be a PM in place, she says.
And she congratulates the government whips, joking that they did well to find two Labour MPs to speak in the debate willing to support the PM.