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The King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament this week unveiled the Government’s priorities for the first year in Government – a Government of service. I’m brimming with excitement that Labour now has the opportunity to put their words into action.
An Ambitious Legislative Program
Our packed programme of 40 Bills is a broad and ambitious offering. It needs to be to begin to rebuild our country. Stability will be the cornerstone of our economic policy. Every decision will be consistent with its fiscal rules which will be subject to an independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility so there will never be a repeat of Liz Truss’ disastrous budget which caused so much damage to people’s finances.
Growth is our watchword including a plan to build more houses and infrastructure through a national wealth fund. We will also give more rights to people renting their homes, including putting an end to unfair no-fault evictions.
Transforming Employment Rights
Source: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/monthly-column-im-brimming-with-excitement/
Our Employment Rights Bill is the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. We will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end fire and rehire, introduce basic employment rights from day one and ensure a genuine living wage. New legislation will move power out of Westminster and back to local leaders who know their areas best.
National Infrastructure and Transport
We’ll establish Great British Railways and bring train operators into public ownership. And we’ll introduce a bill to allow local leaders to take control of their bus services. Tackling the climate emergency is vital. We will set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean-power company that will help boost energy security, create jobs and build supply chains in every corner of the UK.
We’ll also introduce legislation that helps unlock investment in energy infrastructure, supports sustainable aviation fuel production, and strengthens the water regulator’s powers to tackle the sewage crisis that has polluted our waterways.
Public Safety and Legal Reforms
We’ll introduce laws to strengthen community policing, giving the police greater powers to deal with anti-social behaviour and strengthen support for victims. New laws will improve the safety and security of public venues and help keep the public safe from terrorism. We will bring forward plans to halve violence against women and girls.
The government will strengthen the border with a new bill that modernises the asylum and immigration system, including launching a new Border Security Command which will deploy more police and investigators to smash the criminal gangs.
Education and Health Policies
We’ll take action to raise educational standards and break down barriers to opportunity. This includes measures to help people back into employment and a bill to raise standards in education and promote children’s wellbeing.
Our government will take steps to improve the National Health Service for everyone – including reducing waiting times and focusing on prevention. We’ll improve mental health provision for young people and modernise the Mental Health Act to ensure all patients are treated with dignity and respect.
Combating Child Poverty and Health Issues
Our plan includes action on child poverty introducing legislation to help stop young people from smoking and vaping, and restricting advertising junk food to children.
Obviously, the devil will be in the details and things won’t change overnight but this is a promising start and I look forward to working hard to restore faith in politics and make these priorities law to turn around the fortunes of the country and improve lives.
This is a monthly guest column provided by Mohammad Yasin, Labour MP for Bedford & Kempston. It is published unedited and does not reflect the views of the site.
