Johnson vows to revive UK’S economic growth

LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised on Tuesday to revive Britain’s economic growth to help those struggling with a cost-of-living crisis and to tackle regional inequalities ater seting out his government’s agenda for the coming months.

Punished by voters in last week’s local elections over COVID-19 lockdown-related scandals and soaring inflation, Johnson said his ruling Conservative Party would “deliver on the promises we made” in the 2019 election.

The plans, contained in the Queen’s Speech, were read out at the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament for the first time in 59 years not by Queen Elizabeth but by her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, due to the monarch’s mobility problems.

But there was litle to comfort the millions of Britons struggling with higher fuel and food costs, with the government reiterating that it would “repair the public finances” rather than channel additional money to cushion the blow.

Johnson told parliament his government would do all it could to help those struggling with rising prices, but “however great our compassion and ingenuity, we cannot simply spend our way out of this problem, we need to grow out of this problem.”

“We will get through the ater-shocks of COVID by urgently pressing on with our mission to create the high-wage, high-skilled jobs that will drive economic growth across the United Kingdom,” he said.

Earlier, in a ceremony full of pomp and pageantry, Charles - who wore the uniform of an admiral of the fleet - read the speech in front of robed lords and lawmakers, who had walked from the House of Commons to the upper chamber, the House of Lords, led by Johnson and opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Charles was drated in ater Buckingham Palace said on Monday that the 96-year-old Queen was experiencing “episodic mobility problems” and had reluctantly decided she could not atend.

The Queen’s Speech set out 38 bills, including measures to revitalise Britain’s high streets, crack down on illicit finance and make the City, London’s financial district, more atractive to global investors ater the country let the European Union.

Conservative lawmakers welcomed the proposed laws. David Jones, a former minister, told Reuters it showed “an ambitious government agenda, seizing the opportunities of Brexit.”

But Starmer said the government’s response to the cost-of-living crisis was “pathetic.”

“We have a government whose time has passed, a cabinet out of ideas and out of energy, led by a prime minister entirely out of touch,” the Labour leader told parliament.