Brexit Today’s at heart of agenda for Boris

Queen’s Speech ‘to get the country moving’

BORIS Johnson will put delivering Brexit at the heart of his legislative programme to be set out today in the first Queen’s Speech of his premiership.

It will include plans to rush through Parliament a Withdrawal Agreement Bill to ratify any deal he manages to strike at this week’s EU summit in time for Britain to leave on October 31.

At the same time, the Prime Minister pledged an ‘optimistic and ambitious’ programme of domestic legislation which would again make the UK ‘the greatest place on earth’.

Government sources said it would include 22 Bills, with measures to tackle serious and violent crime, and to invest in science and infrastructure.

However, with no Commons majority, it is questionable how much, if any, of the proposed legislation ministers can get through Parliament before a general election.

Labour has dismissed the decision to hold a Queen’s Speech before the country goes to the polls as a ‘preelection party political broadcast’ for the Tories.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said if Mr Johnson secures a deal at the twoday EU summit starting on Thursday, Labour will try to force him to put it to the voters in a referendum.

Such a move could pose a serious headache for the Government, as the last Commons attempt to hold a second referendum was defeated by only 12 votes and since then Mr Johnson has seen his majority wiped out.

With hopes of a deal rising, the Prime Minister updated the Cabinet on progress in the Brexit talks – which have been continuing in Brussels over the weekend – in a conference call yesterday

After the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier gave the green light for intensive negotiations to start on Friday, No 10 sources stressed they were still ‘a long way’ from a final agreement.

‘It is good to see progress, but we will wait to see if this is a genuine breakthrough,’ one source said. ‘We remain prepared to leave without a deal on October 31.’

Mr Johnson, meanwhile, was keen to focus on his domestic agenda, promising a Queen’s Speech that will ‘get this country moving again’.

‘The people of this country don’t just want us to sort out Brexit,’ he said. ‘They want their NHS to be stronger, their streets safer, their wi-fi faster, the air they breathe cleaner, their kids’ schools betterfunded – and this optimistic and ambitious Queen’s Speech sets us on a course to make all that happen, and more besides.

‘After one of the least-active parliaments in living memory, the proposals we are bringing forward will get this country moving again.

‘This is a Queen’s Speech that will deliver for every corner of the UK and make this, once again, the greatest place on earth.’

The measures include a new Environment Bill setting legally binding targets to reduce plastics, restore biodiversity, improve water quality and cut air pollution.

There will also be Brexitrelated legislation intended to establish a ‘fair’ immigration system, ensure faster access to new medicines and to open up markets.

‘Every corner of the UK’