Lorna Slater: The King’s Speech exposed Labour’s lack of ambition

This was Keir Starmer’s first big chance to kick start a transformation in our politics, rejecting 14 years of Tory austerity and climate denial, and re-build a system that works for people and planet.

But he blew it. What we got was yet more business as usual – doubling down on the mantra of “growth, growth, growth” and placing all faith in the failed dogma of trickle-down economics.

Never mind the perverse image of a man wearing a £45 million crown talking about the “cost of living challenges”.

The announcement of a taskforce to “begin work” on a child poverty strategy was quite frankly an insult. Starmer could have immediately lifted hundreds of thousands of children and their families out of poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

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But instead he is prioritising self-imposed fiscal rules over caring for vulnerable children.

Also absent from this King’s Speech was any real acknowledgement of the level of climate crisis we face. You’d never know that just this week the Climate Change Committee (CCC) advised the UK Government that urgent action is needed if we are to have any hope of achieving our net-zero targets. After years of delays and foot-dragging by the last Tory government, the CCC say we are well off track for the UK’s first major climate target in 2030 – a target significantly less ambitious than Scotland’s goal of a 75% reduction in emissions.

Yet all we got from the King’s Speech was yet more vague words on the shape-shifting Great British Energy. After months of talk of this mythical being, is anyone any closer to understanding what exactly it is?

It’s certainly not going to revoke the new drilling licences for oil and gas issued by the last Tory government, or scrap the annual licensing rounds, or invest the £28 billion annually that’s needed at a minimum to ensure a just transition from fossil fuels.

It’s not going to decarbonise our transport system, or cut emissions from our farms, or make our homes greener, warmer and cheaper to heat.

(Image: Radar)

That’s the level of ambition that’s needed if we are to have any chance of preventing catastrophic climate breakdown. But it’s ambition that is clearly missing from this new Labour government.

The one solid announcement on supporting the development of sustainable aviation fuels would have been welcome, if it was accompanied by significant measures to cut flying overall, and to tax private jet use and frequent flyers.

But instead we’re going to be left with a situation where we continue to use taxpayer money to subsidise polluting flights, whilst low-carbon rail remains too expensive for too many people.

A number of the measures announced by the King have been hailed as progress by the UK media, but in reality simply show the UK Government playing catch up on policies where Scotland – and the Scottish Greens – have led the way.

Plans to renationalise rail companies are welcome, but Scotland already took that step for both Scotrail and the Caledonian Sleeper during the Scottish Greens’ time in government.

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Labour should now prioritise cross-border services for renationalisation, to start the process of making domestic rail travel between Scotland and England the cheaper option, and commit to following Scotland’s lead and scrapping peak-time rail fares.

The proposed Renters Rights Bill, which Labour claim will “transform” renting, simply scraps no-fault evictions – a move made in Scotland back in 2017.

The Scottish Greens were proud to roll out the first-ever national rent controls in Scotland during the cost of living crisis, and the Housing Bill currently passing through Holyrood will establish a permanent system of local controls.

These are the kind of radical shifts in renters’ rights we should be seeing from the UK Labour government, ones which tackle the cost of renting and ensure renters have as much right as owners to make their house a home. I’m pleased my new Green colleagues in Westminster will be working to strengthen this bill and expand it to include rent controls for England and Wales.

The planned expansion of workers’ rights is of course welcome. But let’s not forget we could have scrapped zero-hours contracts and initiated a real living wage nearly a decade ago in Scotland, if Labour hadn’t blocked the post-referendum devolution of workers’ rights.

And the proposed Devolution Bill for England only is a smack in the face for Holyrood, whilst Labour continue to block democratic decisions made here in Scotland by our parliament, and refuses to let us have our say over a future independence referendum.

There may have been many new faces taking part in the pomp and pageantry at Westminster on Wednesday, but dive deeper and it’s business as usual which prevails in London.

It’s not too late for Keir Starmer to start listening to the voices on the left in Westminster, Scotland, and in his own party – and make the radical change that’s needed for both people and planet.