The Queen has announced a raft of new bills in what is widely regarded as a Conservative manifesto for a General Election rather than a programme for the next session of Parliament.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has no majority in Westminster, so relies on the good will of other parties to pass legislation.
However, Johnson’s standing with rival parties is thin to say the most and he is unlikely to win support from outside his own party – although he can seemingly rely on the 10 Democratic Unionist MPs.
A new Pensions Bill was the mainstay of The Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament.
The proposed law will introduce pension dashboards to collect retirement savings data from all pensions into one place.
The bill also promotes Dutch style collective pensions and new rules to give regulators a tighter grip over how private pensions are managed.
Johnson has huge poll lead over spent force Corbyn
“To help people plan, measures will be brought forward to provide simpler oversight of pension savings,” said The Queen.
“To protect people savings for later life, new laws will provide greater powers to tackle irresponsible management of private pension schemes.”
Other measures among the 26 bills described in the speech will address crime, health and the environment – plus several laws to tidy up after Brexit.
Despite Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn labelling the Queen’s Speech an election stunt, the government has stated an intention to leave the European Union on October 31 and challenged Labour to call an election if they dared.
The latest YouGov poll data gives Johnson a 13% lead over Corbyn if an election was called tomorrow.
Autumn Budget 2019 date set
Meanwhile, Chancellor Sajid Javid will give his Autumn Budget 2019 on Wednesday, November 6, following the nation’s exit from the European Union, which makes the speech earlier than usual.
Mr Javid has said that this budget will set out the government’s “plan to shape the economy for the future”.
He has also promised that it will trigger the start of the UK’s infrastructure revolution.
