Queen's Speech

The Tory Government set out its legislative programme last week in the Queen's Speech. There were 30 bills - you can find details here. The Queen's Speech is followed by a wide ranging debate covering all the issues raised and takes several days.

Labour's Keir Starmer responded to the Queen's Speech saying that, "The government still doesn't understand what went wrong in the past decade, and has no plan for the next. Even before the pandemic, Britain needed transformative change: to reset our economy, to rebuild our public services, to strengthen our union and our democracy for decades to come."

Diana responded to several elements of the speech calling for a new NHS, Social Care and Emergency Services Covenant to safeguard workers in those professions.

Diana said: "Never again should these staff face the prospect of needlessly risking their own health, even their own lives, in the course of doing their job through a lack of PPE or failings in testing. The Home Secretary talked about the police covenant in her opening remarks. I hope that the Government will consider instituting a national health, social care and emergency services covenant on similar lines to the existing armed forces covenant?enshrined in law, fully funded and in place as soon as is practicable."

Diana also supported an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The amendment aims to protect women and girls so they can access abortion without initimdation and abuse. She also supported an amendment on the Climate Crisis and on human rights issues where the Government has failed to respond to court rulings. Read more here.

Photo credit: Photo by Marcin Nowak on Unsplash