Queen’s Speech to focus on crime, schools and NHS

‘I intend to bring forward an ambitious domestic agenda for the renewal of our country’

THE Queen’s Speech will lay out Boris Johnson’s “bold and ambitious” plans for law and order, the NHS, education and cutting the cost of living.

A centrepiece will also be a Withdrawal Agreement Bill enacting any new deal agreed with the EU before Brexit on October 31. The Queen’s Speech on October 14 comes just three days before the EU Council, where it is expected any new deal would be ratified.

Mr Johnson’s domestic blueprint will be framed by the Chancellor’s Spending Review next Wednesday, which will provide the multi-billion pound cash injection needed to fund his “people’s priorities” of tackling crime, health and education.

“We will help the NHS, fight violent crime, invest in infrastructure and science and cut the cost of living,” said Mr Johnson, in a letter to all 650 MPS announcing the Queen’s Speech. On law and order, the 20,000 extra police officers he has promised over three years is likely to be supplemented by tougher sentences for violent criminals and possibly a new victims’ law, which was championed by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, as a backbench MP.

One sentencing model, included in the 2010 Conservative manifesto but blocked by the Lib Dems in the coalition government, would end automatic release of offenders halfway through jail terms and require them to “earn” it through good behaviour and taking part in rehabilitation schemes.

Mr Johnson has already pledged £1.8billion for front-line NHS services and has promised action on waiting lists so that people “don’t have to wait three weeks to see your GP”. It is thought unlikely there will be any changes to the structure of the NHS.

One of Mr Johnson’s key pledges has been to reform social care to ensure nobody has to sell their home in old age to pay for care, a promise that follows more than two years of delay in bringing forward legislation.

Options include a state-backed insurance scheme under which people, from their 40s, would save for better care in their old age, and tax relief for “three generation” families who care for their elderly parents in their homes.

An overhaul of education funding is expected to see secondary schools get at least £5,000 per pupil and primaries £4,000; measures to encourage more high-flying graduates into teaching, a crackdown on indiscipline among pupils and more specialist provision for excluded pupils.

A new Bill will be required to enact the Prime Minister’s proposed Australian-style migration points system, designed to open up the UK to skilled workers but to crack down on those who “abuse Britain’s hospitality”. No 10 also wants a tougher approach to deporting foreign criminals. Mr Johnson’s administration is already planning to create up to 10 free ports after Brexit, that will allow firms to import goods and then re-export them outside normal tax and customs rules. He has also pledged to change the tax rules to provide extra incentives to invest in capital and research.

In a move to boost prosperity in the North, he has set out plans for a new trans-pennine rail route between Manchester and Leeds, and is said to have expressed personal interest in having the northern phase of HS2 built first.

In his letter to MPS, Mr Johnson defended his decision to prorogue Parliament, claiming that Commons business had been sparse “for some time” with Bills introduced that “seemed more about filling time”.

“I therefore intend to bring forward a new bold and ambitious domestic legislative agenda for the renewal of our country after Brexit,” he added.