Trade union's, campaign groups and political parties have responded to Labour's King's Speech
Today (July 17) saw the first King’s Speech under a Labour government in 15 years. The event saw the government propose 40 separate pieces of legislation which will be brought before parliament in the near future.
Among the Bills proposed by the new government are proposals to nationalise the railways, to create the publicly owned renewable energy company Great British Energy and to reform the House of Lords.
Labour’s legislative programme has been received with critical support from the left in the UK.
Sharon Graham – the General secretary of the Unite trade union – released a statement arguing that the King’s Speech ‘shows why Britain needs a Labour government’, but also warned about the government becoming ‘straitjacketed by self-made fiscal rules’. She said: “The King’s Speech is packed full of measures which will begin transforming the UK for the better. The King’s Speech shows why Britain needs a Labour Government. The forthcoming employment rights bill is key to rebalancing the relationship between employers and workers, making work fairer. As always, the detail will be important.
“Given the sheer scale of the challenge facing the government after a decade and a half of neglect, Labour has to be ready to deliver the transformation and change that workers and communities need.
“The NHS and our public services are on their knees, staff are leaving in droves and our infrastructure is crumbling, substantial investment will be needed to tackle the cliff edge we face. That fact is undeniable.
“Now is not the time for the government to be straitjacketed by self-made fiscal rules, leaving us entirely reliant on growth, which may not arrive in time.”
The Green Party also highlighted Labour’s fiscal rules as a cause for concern in the new government. The party’s co-leader Adrian Ramsay said that the programme announced in the King’s Speech ‘has fallen short of the urgent transformative programme we need’.
Ramsay said: “Labour promised change but today it has fallen short of the urgent transformative programme we need, and which the Government has the power to deliver.
“Our four Green MPs, and the nearly two million people who voted Green in the election, want to see a bolder Labour Government that will invest in ambitious change, including to restore our essential public services and tackle the climate and nature emergencies.
“We welcome the Prime Minister resetting the tone of politics as being about public service and there were some welcome announcements in the King’s Speech, but Labour’s ambition will sadly be hampered for as long as they handcuff themselves with the Conservatives’ fiscal rules.
“Greens want action to clean up our rivers and seas by ending the failed experiment of water privatisation, the immediate scrapping of the cruel two-child benefit cap, no climate-wrecking oil and gas extraction from Rosebank, and local authorities to be given the powers to introduce controls on private rent levels. This is what a genuinely ambitious programme would look like, rather than a fixation on growth for growth’s sake which fails to recognise the big challenges.”
Meanwhile, in advance of the King’s Speech, anti-privatisation campaign group We Own It welcomed the proposals to renationalise the railways and allow local councils to regulate their bus networks. In a blog following the Speech, the group reiterated this support, while also praising Labour for establishing Great British Energy.
However, We Own It also criticised the Labour government for failing to include – among other things – bringing the water companies back into public ownership and reinstating the NHS as a fully public service within its programme.
The PCS union, meanwhile, welcomed the government’s commitments on workers’ rights and called on Starmer to urgently liaise with trade unions to ensure workers’ rights are respected. The union’s general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “After 14 years of anti-union rhetoric and attacks on workers across sectors, it is refreshing today to see a new government committed to implementing rights from day one.
“We would urge Labour to liaise with unions urgently to ensure that workers across sectors are protected. Our union stands ready to work with Labour in government to ensure civil servants, outsourced workers and related bodies are protected, empowered and respected.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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