LEGAL COMMITMENTS to cut the UK’s spiralling debt and prevent future banking crises, along with guarantees of quick access to treatment for serious illnesses, will form the key planks of British prime minister Gordon Brown’s bid for re-election next year.
The promises were included in a speech by Queen Elizabeth to a joint gathering of the Houses of Commons and Lords held amid tight security yesterday at Westminster.
The queen’s speech sets out the government’s legislative plans for the coming parliamentary year.
However, few if any of the proposed pieces of legislation mentioned in the speech – her shortest since 1997 at just seven minutes – will have the chance of becoming law before the election in May or June next year.
Westminster will sit for just 33 days between now and the election, but legislation could be passed in a rush at the last minute if all parties agree – though this would require major concessions by Labour.
Instead, the list can be seen as the opening chapter of Mr Brown and the Labour Party’s manifesto to win a fourth term in office, though the party is trailing behind the Conservatives in the polls.
Conservative Party leader David Cameron said the failure to include 11 pieces of legislation needed to reform MPs expenses’ rules was extraordinary, while the commitment to cut state borrowing was “meaningless”.
Last night, the government said measures to stiffen financial regulation, by giving the Bank of England greater powers, would ensure future banking difficulties “never again come at the cost to living standards of Britain’s families”.
The UK Financial Services Authority will be legally bound to ensure stability, while it will also have stronger powers to regulate bankers’ pay, including the authority to tear up contracts if they do not comply with the rules.
Banks will also be required to organise themselves in such a way that they could be broken up more easily, thus avoiding the need for multibillion bailouts.
The government wants to create a legal duty to cut the UK’s public debt in half over four years, though the details of the plan will not be set out until the chancellor of the exchequer gives his pre-budget report early next month.
However, the measure was widely regarded both by the opposition parties and senior figures as “a con”, since the detail necessary to bring about such a result was absent.
Mr Brown also wants a legal commitment to end child poverty by 2020, though this has been principally included to force the Conservatives to agree to it before the election or else face political embarrassment for refusing to do so.
Describing Mr Brown’s move as “partisan pettiness”, the Conservatives’ Michael Gove said child poverty could not simply be eliminated by a reference in the queen’s speech. “We all know it is far more complicated than that,” he said.
Free care will be offered in the home to 280,000 people suffering from illnesses such as Parkinson’s and dementia, while the savings of 166,000 more who already receive such care will be protected.
Families will be ordered to undergo assessments by social workers if one of their children breaches anti-social behaviour orders, and parents themselves could face restrictions if their child continues to behave badly.
Police will be able to bar those suspected of domestic violence for fixed periods “even if they are not charged, empowering victims to feel safe in their own homes rather than seeking refuge elsewhere”.
Major businesses will be asked to lodge wage records with the government to prove women are not being discriminated against. Legal rules requiring this will be enforced by 2013 if sufficient progress is not made voluntarily.
Temporary workers will qualify for the same pay and holidays as permanent staff after 12 weeks, while pregnant women will be given stronger rights to time off for antenatal appointments.
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