Time for change: Queen sets out UK Johnson's post-pandemic agenda
Send a link to a friend
[May 11, 2021]
By Elizabeth Piper and William James
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson promised to tackle inequality and "level up" the country
on Tuesday with a post-pandemic raft of laws presented by Queen
Elizabeth to parliament.
In a ceremony stripped back because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the queen,
who wore a day dress instead of the usual robes and crown, read out the
bills the government hopes to pass during the next year on everything
from job creation and healthcare to stripping back post-Brexit
bureaucracy.
In the 18 months since Johnson's Conservatives were re-elected with a
big parliamentary majority, his agenda has been eclipsed by the
pandemic, which caught his government off guard and has absorbed many of
its resources for making policy.
With Britain's vaccination programme now far ahead of many other
countries and the spread of the virus at low levels, Johnson is hoping
to revive his 'levelling up' agenda and re-set a premiership that has
been clouded by accusations of cronyism.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/May/11/images/ads/current/graue_preowned_050321.png)
"My government's priority is to deliver a national recovery from the
pandemic that makes the United Kingdom`stronger, healthier and more
prosperous that before," the 95-year-old queen told parliament in the
speech written by the government.
"To achieve this, my government will level up opportunities across all
parts of the United Kingdom, supporting jobs, businesses and economic
growth and addressing the impact of the pandemic on public services."
In an introduction to the pages of government pledges, Johnson said:
"The crisis has in no way diminished the government's ambition or
appetite for change... We have been given an historic opportunity to
change things for the better."
"RHETORIC INTO REALITY"
After completing Britain's exit from the European Union at the end of
2020, Johnson has wanted to showcase what he sees as the benefits of
Brexit. But he has so far been unable to match a pledge made in the 2016
Brexit referendum campaign of handing the health service 350 million
pounds ($494 million) a week.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/051121PIX/news_z67.jpg)
Westminster Palace tower is seen before the State Opening of
Parliament, where a scaled-back ceremony will take place
amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, in
London, Britain, May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
![](../images/ads/current/centraldirect_lda_SPONSOR_2021.png)
His government will instead try to reduce what it saw
as excessive EU bureaucracy by streamlining state aid and
procurement rules so it can target funds to ailing businesses more
quickly and directly.
That was part of the government's strategy to "build back better",
which also included education reforms to help adults access
life-long learning - seen by ministers as key to reshaping the
British workforce.
On climate change, the government repeated its commitment to achieve
net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a pledge it hopes will
spur other nations to cut their emission targets before a United
Nations climate summit in November in Scotland.
Much of Tuesday's 'Queen's Speech' comprised policies and proposals
already flagged, prompting the opposition Labour Party to challenge
the government to turn its "rhetoric into reality".
"The Conservatives have so far tried to hide their lack of a
long-term plan by making people and places scrap over funding pots,"
Labour leader Keir Starmer said in a statement.
"This piecemeal approach won't deliver the fundamental change our
country needs. Instead, we must today see meat on the bones of a
proper, ambitious plan to deliver the change people across the
country deserve."
($1 = 0.7078 pounds)
(Reporting by William James and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by
Bernadette Baum and Gareth Jones)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/May/11/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png) |