London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 20, 2025

Queen’s speech preview shows a government scrabbling around for ideas

Queen’s speech preview shows a government scrabbling around for ideas

Analysis: List of expected bills appears shot with contradictions, trying to keep red wall and blue wall onside
Tuesday’s Queen’s speech is meant to be a relaunch for Boris Johnson’s beleaguered government, against the backdrop of a deep cost of living crisis, and with Tory backbenchers still divided about his future.

But if the advance briefing is anything to go by, this is an administration with little fresh to offer.

A “bonfire of red tape” is certainly not revolutionary: Gordon Brown had the Hampton review and the Better Regulation taskforce; George Osborne had his own “bonfire of red tape”, not to mention a “Red Tape Challenge”.

With the benefit of hindsight, most such efforts are widely viewed as worthy, but incremental.

Of course, freed from the shackles of the EU, the government has more wriggle room to make regulatory change; but the examples given by Boris Johnson during the leave campaign – the size of olive oil bottles and the packaging for fish – underline the modest scale of what is likely to be possible. Such tweaks would also almost certainly be dwarfed by post-Brexit border bureaucracy.

Some bills will enact crucial but long-promised changes, such as reform of the school funding formula, or ensuring Companies House, the official register of companies, combats fraud.

Other plans, such as the levelling up bill, giving local authorities the power to force landlords to rent out empty shops and take control of empty buildings, appear modest, but are clearly designed to deliver the changes “red wall” voters may hope to see if they are to stick with Johnson at the next general election.

A new British bill of rights, meanwhile, allows the government to keep one of its favourite culture wars, the battle against “lefty lawyers”, burning brightly, while Channel 4 privatisation would cheer the party’s rightwingers.

But the overall sense, as with mooted plans for tackling the cost of living crisis that included two-yearly MOTs, is of a government scrabbling around for ideas.

Part of the difficulty, for an administration which has never had much of a guiding purpose beyond Brexit and keeping Johnson in power, is knowing what its electoral constituency is.

In Friday’s local election results, the Tories received a kicking from the Lib Dems in the south, amplifying the warning signal sent by the Chesham and Amersham byelection last year.

So the list of expected bills appears shot through with the contradictions of trying to keep north and south, red wall and blue wall, onside.

Hence the toned-down planning reform mooted by Michael Gove at the weekend: gone is the no-holds-barred approach drawn up by his predecessor, Robert Jenrick, that was intended to disfranchise Nimbies and lead to a drastic increase in housebuilding.

Instead, local authorities will apparently be given more latitude in applying housing targets; and Gove was full of soothing talk of small-c conservative developments such as Prince Charles’s favourite, Poundbury in Dorset.

While Conservative campaign headquarters sources continue to deny that an autumn election is even a remote possibility, there is also a whiff of Lynton Crosby’s notorious advice to David Cameron to “get the barnacles off the boat”, too.

Gone is the ban on foie gras and fur, it appears – and gone, too, the employment bill that would have strengthened workers’ rights, but perhaps couldn’t be easily shoehorned into the theme of levelling up.

Plenty of legislative time will also be taken up working through bills carried over from the last parliamentary session – including on animal welfare and online safety.

It remains to be seen whether Johnson can fashion a coherent narrative out of Tuesday’s pomp and ceremony. But as after Rishi Sunak’s spring statement, there is a clear risk that again, the main impression is of a government that has failed to grasp the scale of the crisis at hand.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
×