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Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has pulled out of an event she was due to attend in Leeds tomorrow, Sky News reports.

Labour MP Charlotte Nichols says it is getting 'tedious' having to keep saying she won't give up seat for Burnham

Charlotte Nichols, the Labour MP for Warrington North, says she is fed up of telling people that she will not give up her seat for Andy Burnham. Commenting on a new story saying hers is one of the seats Burnham has been targeting, she said:

I don’t know how many different ways I can say this but I’m not stepping aside for Andy Burnham, and it’s both very tedious for me and very demoralising for my staff to keep seeing it reported that I might be about to go when there’s never even been so much as a conversation with Andy about doing so

Starmer in meeting with MPs and ministers to shore up support for his leadership

Keir Starmer joked about the threat to his leadership in the king’s speech debate. After praising Naz Shah, the Labour MP who proposed the loyal address, for her recent memoir, which he said had been endorsed by 100 members, he added:

At last, a list that we could all get behind.

But, in fact, Starmer is taking the threat more seriously. He has been in parliament meeting MPs and ministers, it is understood.

Allies claim there has been “a big show of support” for him.

Ministers have also been in the Commons tearoom druming up support for the PM. They have been arguing that a leadership contest would plunge Labour into chaos and paralyse the work of government for months.

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the new Plaid Cymru first minister of Wales, has appointed his ministerial team. He said this cabinet would “bring new energy, new ideas and a new direction to the way our nation is led”.

Discounts on energy bills at times of excess power to help ‘energy independence’

People will be able to get discounts on bills for using power at sunny, windy times when the grid is generating excess electricity as part of legislation to boost UK “energy independence”, the Press Association reports.

The energy independence bill, announced as part of the king’s speech, aims to get the UK off the “fossil fuel rollercoaster” with clean, homegrown power and electrification of the wider economy, officials said.

It includes measures to cut energy bills, require landlords to invest in home upgrades, pave the way to create a dedicated “warm homes agency” to deliver a £15bn programme of home electrification and provide for targeted support for vulnerable and low-income families.

It also contains measures to reform markets and regulation to speed up the deployment of technologies such as offshore wind and hydrogen, and reduce “unnecessary delays” to build the grid infrastructure needed to roll out more clean power.

PLP committee urges those Labour MPs coordinating release of statements criticising PM to stop

The parliamentary Labour party’s (PLP’s) committee has issued a statement urging Labour MPs to stop coordinating the release of comments criticising the PM. As Sky’s Sam Coates reports, the committee (the Labour equivalent of the Tory 1922 Committee) says:

We respect both those who have set out their objections to the prime minister and those who have voiced their support for the prime minister.

But the scenes of the last 48 hours cannot continue if we are to address the causes of distress for all concerned.

We know it is not in anyone’s interest to see an increasingly divided PLP descend into chaos.

We would ask that those coordinating the statements and resignations to stop. We want to convey to all concerned the following which reflects our discussions with colleagues:

-⁠The rules of the party are clear regarding challenging the Party leadership. Colleagues either meet those requirements or desist. There will be lasting damage if the current position continues.

-We will continue in our role to convey the honest and heartfelt views of backbenchers to the prime minister.

Reform UK councillor apologises over Facebook post saying police should investigate 'non white persons' in park

A newly-elected Reform UK councillor has apologised after posting on social media calling for the police to take action about “non white persons taking over” a town park with the “strong pervading smell of cannabis”, the Press Association reports. PA says:

Army veteran Ken Tranter, who was elected to the Aldershot South seat on Hampshire county council, posted after his election on Facebook: “Someone on an Aldershot Facebook site was concerned about non white persons taking over the Municipal Gardens and the strong pervading smell of cannabis. I promised, if elected I would speak to the police which I did. Their response was to say ‘they were aware’.

“I don’t want them to be aware, I want them to stop it and return the park to family use. Therefore I will write to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and demand action.”

The comments provoked criticism online with one person posting: “Can you stop using non white as a label, it’s thoroughly rude, offensive and not needed. Disgusted.”

Following the criticism, Tranter deleted the post and said in a statement: “My recent post about cannabis smoking in the Municipal Gardens was wrong in its wording and has caused understandable offence. Referring to the group by skin colour was a poor choice that I deeply regret. It was clumsy, unnecessary, and open to misinterpretation as racist, and I take full responsibility for that.

“I apologise for the offence caused and for any distress my words have inflicted. Racism has no place in our community or in my politics, and I condemn it in all its forms.”

Ed Davey mocks claims Streeting fixing NHS

Davey also attacked Wes Streeting’s record on the NHS.

When he’s not plotting his next leadership bid on the prime minister, the secretary of state would have Labour backbenchers believe he’s fixing the NHS. If only.

Now we’re told that the health secretary is preparing to resign tomorrow. This resignation is taking so long it would give NHS waiting lists a run for their money.

Anyone who visits their local hospital knows that the NHS remains in a critical state. Thousands of people are still being treated in hospital corridors every day. We’re now even seeing job adverts for people to provide care in corridors.

Updated

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, followed Keir Starmer.

He said the Lib Dems would vote against the king’s speech.

And he said this was the most surreal state opening he had attended.

The prime minister may soon not be in power, not in place for his own programme, not able to deliver these promises.

Davey said, if every Labour MP who has called for Starmer to go voted against it too, the government might be defeated.

We will be voting against, not just because the prime minister is one of the weakest prime ministers in postwar history now, but because this king’s speech does not offer the change our country needs.

He was particularly critical of the proposals on Europe, saying the speech included “an EU reset bill that fails to reset, from a prime minister who knows a thing or two about failed resets”.

He went on:

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised with the prime minister’s refusal to remove his red lines on a new EU-UK customs union, the prime minister’s refusal to go further than his red lines on the single market, the prime minister’s refusal to deliver a new, deep trading relationship with our European partners, with a proper youth mobility scheme.

That all means his consigning our country to higher prices, and lower growth, and failing to address the economic insecurity plaguing our economy.

Mark Francois (Con) intervened, and said the recent supreme court judgment confirmed that overwhelmingly the last government’s Legacy Act was not incompatible with the Human Rights Act.

He said that Starmer recently criticised Zack Polanski for criticising the split-second decisions made by police in Golders Green. But he claimed Starmer was authorising the prosecution of military veterans over split-second decisions made in Northern Ireland many years ago.

Starmer said he had been in control rooms in Northern Ireland when decisions were being made about the use of force. He knew how difficult those decisions were, he said.

He said these were different from the issues addressed in the govenrment’s Troubles bill.

Lincoln Jopp (Con) intervened to ask when the government would publish its defence investment plan.

Starmer said it would be published soon, and attacked the Tories for hollowing out the armed forces.

Jim Allister (TUV) intervenes to say that, under the post-Brexit settlement, Northern Ireland has been subject “for some years to the humiliation of being governed by those we don’t make and can’t change”.

Starmer says he is aware of these problems.

He goes on:

We have to face the fact that promises were made about Brexit which were not true, which haven’t borne fruit.

Starmer says a complete break from the status quo is needed.

Our response this time must and will be different, a complete break.

We will not simply slump back to the old ways, because this king’s speech gives us the strength we need, the economic security, energy security and national security to control our future in a chaotic world.

It is an agenda of radical reform across our major public services, an urgent activist Labour government that tilts power back to workers.

Starmer claims king's speech 'strike against status quo that has failed working people'

Moving to the substance of his speech, Starmer says:

This king’s speech is a strike against the status quo that has failed working people.

It’s a king’s speech for the young people whose gifts lie in their hands, who work hard, want their talents to be recognised and just want an opportunity in their community.

A king’s speech for the children who, under the party opposite, had to go to school without breakfast, hungry, cold and tired when they should be focused on their learning.

And it’s a king’s speech for the backbone of this country, for working people who worry about the cost of living, want their town centres are thrive, their public services to work, their government to be on their side.

Starmer mocks Badenoch over her claim election results were positive for Tories

Starmer also pays tribute to Badenoch. He jokes sarcastically about “the usual warm and generous nature” of her contribution.

“Her input is always a ray of sunshine,” he says.

He goes on:

We do have one thing in common. Our parties both had tough results in the local elections last week. The difference is she hasn’t noticed.

That is a reference to Badenoch claiming (in the face of most of the evidence) that the results showed the Tories were “coming back”.

Keir Starmer is speaking now.

As is conventional, he stats with tributes – generous and sincere – to Naz Shah and Chris Vince.

Referring to Vince being beaten in the marathon by Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, he jokes that it is no shame being beaten by someone “whose training was so extensive that involved it running all the way from North West Durham [Holden’s former seat] to Billericay [the one Holden parachuted himself into just before the 2024 election].”

Badenoch says Farage not cause of UK's problems, but 'symptom of failure of political class to .. . fix problems'

Badenoch said that MPs have to face up the fact people are angry with them.

It is time to be brutally honest. The country is angry with the entire political class. All of us here. They are not happy with how we have been doing politics. It is time to get serious.

She said Labour MPs should not be scared of Nigel Farage. She wasn’t, she claimed. She went on:

[Farage] is not the cause of Britain’s problems. He is a symptom …

He is a symptom of the failure of the political class to focus on what matters. If you fix, if you fix the problems that people care about, he goes away.

Badenoch turns to potential leadership candidates.

She says Angela Rayner has “given up vaping but still hasn’t paid her taxes”.

She says Wes Streeting “accidentally sent his takeover plans to No 10”.

She says Andy Burnham claims to be a winner, but he has “twice failed to win the Labour leadership, including against [Jeremy Corbyn].

She says is it no surprise one Labour MP (quoted anoymously on the BBC this morning) described all the candidates as “[fucking] useless”.

Badenoch claims Labour's legacy will be just 'breakfast clubs and Peter Mandelson'

Badenoch says there is nothing in the king’s speech to cut government spending.

And she claims there is nothing to help business.

She claims she feels sorry for Labour MPs. They came to the Commons with high hopes. But the government “descended into total chaos”.

They face the realisation that their legacy is just going to be breakfast clubs and Peter Mandelson.

Labour MPs have been treated as disposable by their leadership, sacked for backing the two child benefit cap, sacked for opposing welfare changes, sacked for supporting farmers.

The prime minister then U-turned on all of them. It must be tough when you take a principled stand and have the whip removed, only for the government to confirm six months later that they agreed with you.

Badenoch says she welcomes the government’s support for Ukraine.

And she welcomes the plans to speed up infrastructure developments.

She also praises Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary. She goes on:

[Mahmood] is trying to do something about illegal immigration.

But the elephant in the room is that she almost certainly won’t be home secretary for much longer.

Sadly, no one else in the Labour party looks remotely interested in bringing down illegal immigration.

Badenoch says there is a line in the musical Hamilton, “winning is easy, governing is harder.” Labour is an example of that.

She goes on:

Everything that has gone wrong in Labour’s first two years comes back to one problem. They came into office with no plan. They did not understand the difference between winning an election and governing a country.

It was very easy to make promises in opposition, promises to freeze council tax, promises to take £300 of energy bills, promises to the Waspi women. Hundreds of Labour MPs took photos with them to post on their Facebook pages and their websites and their election leaflets, but at no point did they bother to think how would they deliver any of it?

She says Britain has “an ageing population, a falling birthrate and a welfare bill that is spiralling out of control”.

She says Labour is failing to meet its housing targets.

Dismissing Labour MPs, she says:

Look at them. They are so arrogant. They want to lead our country. They can’t even lead a coup.

She says there were 24 government U-turns in the last session of parliament.

And every single one of these U-turns had, at its core, a single issue. The prime minister’s total lack of judgment.

This is a man who, faced with a crisis of vision, charisma and electoral success, sent for Gordon Brown.

She says that no Labour MP has tried to intervene on her. It is because they don’t dare, she says.

Badenoch claims Starmer 'in office, but not in power'

Badenoch moves into the serious part of her speech.

The prime minister is in office, but not in power.

Everyone is trying to pretend it’s all right. It’s not all right.

In the past 48 hours, nearly 100 Labour MPs have called for the prime minister to resign. Four ministers have quit.

It is clear his authority has gone and that he will not be able to deliver what little there is in this king’s speech.

This is a government less than two years in office, which has already run out of ideas and run out of road.

Badenoch says parliament will be 'poorer' without hereditary peers

Badenoch says this session of parliament will be the first without the hereditary peers.

She says their departure will be “keenly felt” and parliament will be “poorer” without them.

(It is rare to hear a politician defend the hereditary principle these days, but Badenoch will do it. She posted this long message about the value of hereditary peers in this post on social media last month.)

Badenoch congratulates Naz Shah and Chris Vince on their speeches.

And she praises the king for his contribution today, and for what he achieved on his state visit. She goes on:

[The king’s speech to Congress] was a speech full of the wisdom and courage needed for our times.

Of course, we would never have got to hear it if we’d listen to some people in this house who called for the king’s visit to be cancelled.

But thank goodness no one listens to the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Badenoch starts her speech joking govenment whips did well to find two MPs who back PM to speak in debate

Kemi Badenoch is speaking now.

She says the king’s speech took place against an extraordinary backdrop. We did not even know if there would be a PM in place, she says.

And she congratulates the government whips, joking that they did well to find two Labour MPs to speak in the debate willing to support the PM.

In her speech, Naz Shah did not really address the Labour leadership crisis. But Chris Vince made a point of praising Keir Starmer. Referring to the way he wanted all young people in Harlow were given to achieve whatever they wanted, he said he personally was an example of how “if you really want something and you are willing to work hard for it, you can achieve it” and he said Starmer was “even more proof of it than I am”. He also said Starmer was dedicated to giving that opportunity to others.

And, after a reference to running in the marathon, and his other running endeavours, he ended with a message for Labour MPs.

We should always remember it’s a marathon and not a sprint.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is sitting on the frontbench in the chamber. He is trying to catch the eye of his colleagues, but most of them are trying to avoid engaging with him.

Chris Vince, the MP for Harlow, was the Labour backbencher chosen to second the loyal address to the king. He is speaking now, making plenty of self-deprecating jokes, and even more references to Harlow.

Amnesty International says immigration bill based on 'false promise weakening rights will fix system'

The king’s speech includes an immigration and asylum bill implementing plans to make refugee status temporary, enable more returns deals with other countries, and speed up the deportation of foreign criminals.

Colin Yeo, an immigration barrister, has a good assessment of what the government is proposing to do in this post on his Free Movement blog. Here is an extract.

There is some suggestion that refugees who arrive with nothing and are then forced to live in taxpayer-funded accommodation for years because the government fails to process their claims quickly and refuses to let them work will be required to ‘contribute to the cost borne by the British taxpayer once they are able to do so.’ This is insane, utterly impractical and obviously massively unfair. It’s a transparently stupid idea and I can’t imagine this going anywhere at all.

Amnesty International UK has criticsed the bill. It said:

A new immigration bill is needed, but not another one built on the false promise that weakening rights and restricting appeals will somehow fix a broken system.

The Refugee Council was also critical. It said:

Britain should have a fair and functioning asylum system that restores public confidence and supports refugees to rebuild their lives in safety, but the government’s proposed asylum bill won’t achieve those goals or fix what’s broken. Instead, it risks forcing many into destitution, keeping families separated, and making it even harder for people to put down roots in the UK.

And the Bar Council has expressed concerns too. It said:

The Bar Council has serious concerns about the proposal to replace the first-tier tribunal (immigration and asylum chamber) with a new independent appeals body. Our concerns relate to the impact on procedural fairness, access to justice, judicial independence and trust in the justice system.

We do not support plans to replace existing, trained and qualified judges. There is no substantive evidence that the reforms proposed would be any better at dealing with the current immigration appeal backlogs. We suspect the new reforms, if implemented, will be ineffective and costly.

Labour's Naz Shah opens king's speech debate with jibes at Tory and Reform UK MPs over their views on race

In the Commons the debate on the king’s speech is opened by two government backbenchers. They are expected to deliver speeches with plenty of jokes.

Naz Shah, the MP for Bradford West, has been chosen to go first.

She says she is the first Muslim MP to be invited to propose the loyal address after the king’s speech.

In a jibe at the shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, she jokes about the likely “meltdown” on the far right this might trigger, and how her presence in the debate could even be seen as “an act of domination”.

And, alluding to the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin, Shah says that if seeing black and brown people on TV makes you sick, “my speech is going to make you vomit”.

UPDATE: It is the loyal address, of course, not the humble address. I’ve corrected the reference in the third paragraph.

Updated

European partnership bill to make it easier for ministers to align UK regulations with EU regulations

Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent covering post-Brexit issues.

A European partnership bill, widely expected to give powers to the government to align with EU law through statutory instrument in some cases, will facilitate “new deals agreed with the EU now and in the future”, the government has said.

Confirming details in the king’s speech, the government said the food and drink deal, aligning animal and plant standards, “could add up to £5.1bn a year to the economy”.

This sanitary and phytosanitary agreement will remove the need for some of the paperwork, but not the customs paperwork, for exporters and the government hopes it will restore the appeal to export to those small food producers who had given up after Brexit.

The government pointed out that the EU is the UK’s largest market with trade worth £830bn but the number of British exporters is dwarfed by the number of EU exporters – 95,000 in the UK compared to 158,000 in the EU.

Business leaders have long protested that EU exporters are advantaged by the fact the UK did not implement all the checks and controls on incoming goods. unlike the EU which follows the rules to the letter.

William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said:

A permanent deal with the EU can’t come soon enough for UK firms.

In the talks ahead ministers must deliver a deal that truly unburdens business and cuts costs.

The bill will also lay out a series of new powers to “ensure agreements with the EU can be implemented now and in the future”, which could include alignment on chemicals and medicines, where industries have been forced into complex and costly dual regulatory approval processes to sell the same product in the UK and in the EU.

“The bill will set out how these powers can be used for future treaties and ensure there is parliamentary approval for any new treaties before those powers can be used,” the government said.

In the Commons, the session has just started. As is traditional at the start of a new parliamentary session, the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, reads out a spiel reminding MPs of their duties, including their obligation to comply with the code of conduct.

Here are three Labour-watching journalists on what might happen if Wes Streeting does challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership tomorrow.

From the New Statesman’s Ailbhe Rea

Would Keir Starmer stand against Wes Streeting? Yesterday a No 10 insider said that is a card the PM could yet play. They said he would win, and that the soft left, waiting for Burnham, would back Starmer.

But soft left are clear that won’t happen. “There is no way in hell that the soft left would back Keir,” a well-place soft left figure says.

From Sienna Rodgers from the House magazine

Not sure why I’m seeing so much discussion of a Starmer v Streeting race right now – do you really think the soft left won’t put up a candidate? If their Plan A for Andy B fails after a big fight, it may not be Rayner but they will choose someone

From Lewis Goodall from the News Agents

If Wes Streeting challenges and has the numbers- a big if- then the next big decision (with potentially huge consequences) is for Ed Miliband

New laws to fine businesses who pay suppliers late ‘historic moment’, SMEs say

Small businesses have hailed a clampdown on late payments as a “historic moment” with new laws set to fine firms that are the worst offenders, the Press Association says. PA says:

Measures to tackle poor practices by firms when it comes to paying their suppliers were welcomed by the industry.

Legislation set out in the king’s speech includes giving the Small Business Commissioner new powers to investigate businesses suspected of poor payment practices and adjudicate disputes outside of the courts.

It also means the potential to fine businesses that persistently pay their suppliers late or do not comply with the laws.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: “The formal commitment to legislation to stamp out late payments is an historic moment for small firms, who have spent years battling a culture of poor payment practices by big businesses towards their smaller suppliers.”

Cabinet Office publishes details of all bills in king's speech

Here is the Cabinet Office 129-page briefing document with details of all the bills in the king’s speech.

No 10 says Starmer has 'full confidence' in Streeting, confirming he's still in post

Downing Street has now confirmed that Wes Streeting is still health secretary. The PM’s spokesperson told reporters the prime minister has “full confidence” in the health secretary.

Badenoch publishes Tory alternative king's speeech, as opposition parties claim Labour's programme underwhelming

Kemi Badenoch has said the king’s speech won’t deliver the change that Britain needs. That’s why the Conservatives have published their own alternative king’s speech.

She said:

It is clear to the country, and increasingly to the Labour party, that Keir Starmer is not up to the job of prime minister and doesn’t have a plan for Britain. The Conservatives do have a plan, which is why I am publishing our alternative king’s speech today.

This is the culmination of eighteen months of detailed, hard work done by a renewed Conservative party. We have thought hard about what the country needs and with this document we are showing we have a plan to deliver it.

If you want a country with strong borders, a country that is properly defended, a country that is a great place to start and run a business, and a country in which the law is upheld, this alternative kings speech delivers just that.

This is what Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, posted on social media ahead of the king’s speech.

The King’s Speech should be a bold plan to make change happen in Britain. To end the insecurity and the chaos.

Instead we’ll get the same old lines from a PM on his way out

@LibDems are the only non-populist party left standing. Join us to build our country up, not tear it down

The SNP described the king’s speech as underwhelming. This is from their new leader at Westminster, Dave Doogan.

This was a typically and massively underwhelming policy agenda from a dismal prime minister who promised change but has only delivered chaos.

It does nothing to help families with the cost of living, which has soared under the Labour party, and it shows why Scotland urgently needs a fresh start with independence – because real change will never come from Westminster.

And this is from the Green party MP Hannah Spencer.

My Green colleagues and I are so incredibly disappointed in this King’s Speech, but it’s not a surprise. In the wake of a devastating set of local election results for the Labour party, the prime minister and the government should have used this opportunity to lay out an urgent, transformative, progressive programme to redistribute wealth, tackle the nature and climate crisis and make life affordable for everyone.

My Green colleagues and I will seek to amend the government’s plans to include the urgent action needed to bring down people’s bills – rent controls, nationalising water, freezing energy prices, and taxing wealth. We need to see these measures despite the Labour party’s drama, and even if there’s a different prime minister this time tomorrow!

The amendment will include:

-Freezing energy prices in July to stop them going up by over £300

-New powers to control rents

-Funding for councils to buy existing homes from private landlords

-Water utilities to be brought back into public ownership

-Free bus passes for under 22s

-Universal free school meals

-Further measures to tax fossil fuel companies and the extreme wealth of billionaires and multimillionaires

Reform UK does not seem to have put out a statement about the king’s speech yet. They might have other concerns at the moment. (See 1.09pm.)

Hilary Benn tells BBC he does not know if Streeting still health secretary

Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, has just told Radio 4’s the World at One that he does not know if Wes Streeting is still health secretary.

The presenter, Sarah Montague, asked the question after saying earlier that her team had tried to check with No 10 that Streeting was still health secretary and had not yet had confirmation of that.

In an interview earlier James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told broadcasters that he thought Streeting was still health secretary.

Given that it is now being widely reported that Streeting’s allies expect him to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer tomorrow, it is easy to see why Starmer might be tempted to sack him today if Streeting refuses to disown those reports and pledge his loyalty.

Consumer groups ‘disappointed’ in delay on tout crackdown

Consumer groups and ticket sellers alike say they are “disappointed” that a crackdown on touts has been relegated to a draft bill in the king’s speech, the Press Association says. PA reports:

In November, the government announced it was planning new rules making it illegal to resell tickets for live events for a profit, claiming it would end the “industrial-scale” touting that has caused misery for millions of fans.

The Labour manifesto promised stronger protections to stop consumers being scammed or priced out of events by touts, who frequently use bots to buy tickets in bulk the moment they go on sale, which they can then sell on for huge mark-ups on secondary ticketing websites.

But the hoped-for full legislation was left out of today’s speech, with a draft ticket tout ban bill confirmed in the supporting documentation.

Reform UK has issued this statement about the news that Nigel Farage is being investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards. A party spokesperson said:

Mr Farage’s office is in communications with the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

He has always been clear that this was a personal, unconditional gift and no rules were broken.

We look forward to this being put to bed once and for all.

How parliamentary inquiry into Farage's £5m donation could potentially lead to recall byelection in Clacton

Here is Peter Walker’s story about Nigel Farage being investigated over his undeclared £5m donation from Christopher Harborne.

Reform UK claims that Nigel Farage was under no obligation to declare the donation because it was a personal gift intended to pay for his security. It was not related to his subsequent work as an MP, the party says.

Although there is an exemption for gifts that are purely personal, the House of Commons rules say that gifts should be registered if people might reasonably assume there could be a political motive behind them. The relevant section says MPs do not have to register:

Benefits which could not reasonably be thought by others to be related to membership of the house or to the member’s parliamentary or political activities; for example, purely personal gifts or benefits from partners or family members. However, both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered. If there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered.

Harborne has said the gift was just personal. He told the Telegraph: “I wasn’t expecting anything in return apart from ensuring [Farage’s] safety.”

But, given that Harborne donated £10m to the Brexit party before the 2019 election, and £12m to Reform UK (the new name for the Brexit party) in 2025, it is not particularly surprising that the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, has decided that this is matter that merits a proper investigation.

In a story for the Observer at the weekend, Catherine Neilan quoted experts saying that, if an inquiry finds Farage has broken the rules, the punishment could be quite serious. She said:

A senior official who was also involved in the partygate investigation added: “It’s hard to see how they wouldn’t investigate and impose a sanction.

“[Farage] is saying it’s about security. Well, if that is true, it’s in part because he’s an MP… But setting aside his own rationale, such a donation for any MP should be disclosed.

“In my view, it is impossible to say there isn’t at least a perception of a conflict or obligation created.”

Another source added: “If Farage received this in the year before he was elected, then it should have been declared, no doubt about it.

“My forecast would be that Farage will receive a lengthy suspension, which could trigger a byelection, but that he would relish this and storm back to victory because the good burghers of Clacton would think that he was being clobbered by the establishment.”

In the US Donald Trump faced multiple prosecutions ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and he was found guilty of falsification of business records in a hush-money case.

But the criminal proceedings had little or no impact on Trump’s popularity because he successfully persuaded his supporters that the investigations were evidence he was being persecuted by the establishment because he was standing up for ordinary people.

It is not hard to imagine Farage trying a similar ploy in a Clacton byelection.

Updated

Farage to be investigated by Commons standards watchdog over claim he broke rules by not declaring £5m gift

Nigel Farage will be investigated by the Commons standards watchdog over the revelation that he did not disclose a £5m donation from the crypt billionaire Christopher Harborne that he received shortly before the 2024 election, the BBC is reporting.

BREAKING from @ChrisMasonBBC

The BBC understands that the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has decided to begin an inquiry into whether the Reform leader Nigel Farage has breached the House of Commons Code of Conduct over accepting a £5m gift and not declaring it

Here is a picture of Wes Streeting in the procession from the Commons to the Lords to listen to the king’s speech. He is alongside James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, who earlier posted a message on social media saying it was a mistake for Keir Starmer to humiliate Streeting in the way he did this morning. (See 9.56am.)

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

Amid all the feverish and conspiratorial theories about where Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham could find a safe Westminster seat, only one of those theories puts him in the same category as Winston Churchill.

Scottish political journalists have amused themselves by pointing out there are about to be two vacant Westminster seats in Scotland after last week’s Holyrood elections. Could Burnham head that far north?

Two Scottish National party MPs were elected to the Scottish parliament on Thursday – Stephen Gethins and Stephen Flynn – and, under Scottish legislation introduced last year, they must now quit the Commons and trigger byelections.

Gethins is, for now, the MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry which borders the city of Dundee. It might seem deeply implausible an Englishman with pretensions to be prime minister would have the gall to turbocharge their career from a Scottish seat, not least on nationalist Tayside.

Yet from 1908 Churchill was also an MP there, winning five elections for the Liberals in Dundee until losing it in 1922. And he had trudged northwards to Dundee after losing his previous seat in Manchester North West.

Andrew Liddle, a political consultant who is also author of Churchill: The Scottish Years, said Churchill had “gleefully described” Dundee as his “life seat” because it allowed to him to take his first cabinet position, as president of the board of trade, before becoming home secretary.

But there the comparisons may end, Liddle said. With devolution, and the strength of support for Scottish independence, the idea of an English MP carpet-bagging a prize Scottish seat, once seen as quite normal, would now by utterly unacceptable.

Liddle explained:

Of course, Churchill operated in a very different world from Burnham. In the pre-devolution era, a Scottish constituency carried the same Westminster status as any other UK seat, he only felt the need to visit the constituency occasionally, and – crucially – there was no Scottish National Party to challenge him for office.

For Churchill, Dundee was the platform that kickstarted his political career. For Burnham, it would surely be a folly that would end it.

Updated

For many observers, the best bit of the state opening always used to be the Labour Dennis Skinner cracking a joke as Black Rod arrived to summon MPs to the Lords.

In truth, some of Skinner’s jokes were better than others. Today the Labour MP Torcuil Crichton sought to inherit the Skinner mantle, and his gag was terrific. I won’t print it, because you’ll enjoy it more if you watch. Josh Gafson from Sky News has the clip.

Torcuil Crichton’s joke

Starmer sets out changes to education, health and courts in king’s speech

Keir Starmer has put long-promised changes to education, health and the courts at the heart of his agenda for the next year, as the embattled prime minister looks to prove he can enact the scale of change being demanded by Labour MPs and voters, Kiran Stacey reports.

Wes Streeting, or whoever manages his social media account, has just posted this on social media. It refers to a bill in the king’s speech.

Under Labour, NHS waiting lists are falling, ambulances are arriving faster, there are more GPs, and higher patient satisfaction.

Lots done, lots to do.

The Health Bill will boost the impact of our investment and modernisation: cutting bureaucracy to invest in patient care.

This may have been scheduled; and it implies that Streeting intends to carry on as health secretary.

But it does not say that explicitly. And, if he were to achieve his ambition of becoming PM, he would be in charge of all government activity, and in a position to implement a “lots to do” pledge in regard to health, and everything else.

Streeting's allies say he's preparing to resign and launch leadership challenge as early as tomorrow

Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to quit as health secretary and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as tomorrow, Pippa Crerar, Alexandra Topping and Jessica Elgot report.

Downing Street insiders had suggested Streeting did not yet have the required support from the 81 MPs needed to formally launch a leadership bid after Keir Starmer issued a “put up or shut up” ultimatum to his cabinet.

But a source close to Streeting told the Guardian that he was planning to resign on Thursday and launch a leadership bid. The idea that Starmer had seen off a putsch was “laughable”, they added.

“No one has the numbers till the bell is struck, even canvassing isn’t real, people need certainty before they write their name down. But he thinks he’s got the numbers,” they added.

A second MP, also close to the Streeting camp, said that they had been involved in discussions about getting the requisite numbers he would need to trigger a contest.

Two other MPs have said they had been called by allies of Streeting on Tuesday evening to tell them: “He’s going for it.” One said they were unsure if the health secretary had sufficient backing to go through with the plan.

Here is the full story.

Updated

The king is now wrapping up.

Next year, the United Kingdom will take on the G20 presidency and host the G20 Summit to drive global growth and reinforce global stability, which is essential for the prosperity of working people across the country.

My government is committed to the strength and integrity of the Union of the United Kingdom and will continue to work closely with the devolved governments to deliver for citizens across the whole of the nation.

Members of the House of Commons

Estimates for the public services will be laid before you.

My Lords and members of the House of Commons

Other measures will be laid before you.

I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels.

And that’s it.

The king goes on:

My ministers will also take forward recommendations of the Nuclear Regulatory Review and encourage a new era of British nuclear energy generation

My government will remain a leading advocate for tackling climate change and achieving a world free from poverty. The United Kingdom will also take action to reduce humanitarian need and conflict around the world.

My ministers will champion the rights of women and girls to live in a world free from violence. This will include promoting women’s full economic and political participation within their societies, with agency over the decisions that impact their lives.

The king goes on:

My government will support our gallant Armed Forces and their families who make considerable personal sacrifices for the collective security and freedom of everyone in the United Kingdom. My ministers will recognise this service with an armed forces bill that improves the service justice system and establishes the armed forces covenant in statute.

My ministers believe that energy independence must be a long-term goal of national security and that the nation’s energy security requires long-term investment and reform, as demonstrated by recent events in the Middle East. Increased production of clean British energy will help to ensure that enemies of the United Kingdom cannot attack the economic security of the British people. My Ministers will therefore introduce an Energy Independence Bill to scale-up homegrown renewable energy and protect living standards for the long-term.

The king goes on:

My government will seek to reinforce the long-term energy, defence and economic security of the United Kingdom as an essential component of strength on the world stage. This will include housing, which can be a source of insecurity for many people. My Ministers will bring forward legislation to increase long-term investment in social housing and to reform the leasehold system, including the capping of ground rents.

My government will introduce legislation to tackle the growing threat from foreign state entities and their proxies. They will respond to the horrific attack in Southport with measures to protect the British people from extreme violence, and honour the victims, the injured and their families. My ministers will also introduce legislation to improve the country’s defences against cybersecurity threats.

The king goes on:

My government will bring forward a bill to speed up remediation for people living in homes with unsafe cladding and a draft Bill to ban abusive conversion practices.

In this volatile world, my government will continue to pursue foreign policy based on a calm assessment of the national interest. It will continue its unflinching support for the brave people of Ukraine, who fight on the frontline of freedom.

My ministers will seek to improve relations with European partners as a vital step in strengthening European security. It will continue to promote long term peace in the Middle East and the Two-State solution in Israel and Palestine.

My government will also uphold the United Kingdom’s unbreakable commitment to Nato and our Nato allies, including through a sustained increase in defence spending.

The king goes on:

My government believes that the United Kingdom should be a country fair for all and a place where every child is included in the nation’s highest aspirations. My ministers believe that every child deserves the chance to succeed to the best of his or her ability and not be held back due to poverty, special educational needs, or a lack of respect for vocational education. My ministers will continue to invest in apprenticeships and measures that tackle youth unemployment. They will respond to the Milburn Review and the Timms Review and continue to reform the welfare system to support both young and disabled people to flourish in work as the basis for long-term economic security. A Bill will be brought forward to raise standards in schools and introduce generational reforms of the special educational needs system. My ministers will also proceed with the introduction of Digital ID that will modernise how citizens interact with public services.

Alongside strong public services and a strong economy, the highest standards of trust in public office are essential for the social contract and the United Kingdom’s collective security. My government will introduce the Hillsborough Law to bring forward a duty of candour for public servants. My ministers will also introduce legislation to enable peerages to be removed. My government will bring forward proposals that strengthen the delivery, accountability, innovation and productivity of the civil service. These proposals will also seek to safeguard its impartiality and core values, to enhance trust and confidence in the institutions of government.

The king goes on:

The United Kingdom’s economic security depends upon world class infrastructure. Legislation will be introduced to unlock the benefits of airport expansion enable roads to be built at pace including the Lower Thames Crossing; and deliver a fair deal for the North of England through Northern Powerhouse Rail. My ministers will continue to take all action necessary to safeguard the domestic production of steel.

My government will also improve the United Kingdom’s security by continuing to invest in the renewal of public services. My Ministers will push forward with significant reforms to the police, the National Health Service, and to the criminal justice system to help them deliver services the British people expect. Legislation will be introduced to increase confidence in the security of the immigration and asylum systems . My Government will improve critical infrastructure with legislation to clean-up the water industry and establish Great British Railways.

The king goes on:

My government believes that the United Kingdom’s economic security depends on raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom. My Ministers will support measures that maintain stability and control the cost of living. They will use public investment to shape markets and attract further private investment. They will deploy the power of an active State in partnership with business and enable reforms that support higher growth and a fair deal for working people.

My Government believes that improved trading relations are vital for the United Kingdom’s economic security, for significantly raising economic growth, and for lowering prices for working people. My ministers will introduce legislation to take advantage of new trading opportunities, including a Bill to strengthen ties with the European Union. My government will also support the economic security of British businesses. Legislation will be introduced to tackle late payments and to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation through innovation.

King Charles gives speech at state opening

King Charles starts his speech.

My lords and members of the House of Commons.

An increasingly dangerous and volatile world threatens the United Kingdom, with the conflict in the Middle East only the most recent example. Every element of the nation’s energy, defence and economic security will be tested.

My government will respond to this world with strength and aim to create a country that is fair for all. My ministers will take decisions that protect the energy, defence and economic security of the United Kingdom for the long-term. They will defend the British values of decency, tolerance and respect for difference under our common flag, and they will harness the potential of the pride felt across this country for its communities. My government will take urgent action to tackle antisemitism and ensure all communities feel safe.

Wes Streeting is in the procession. He is next to James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary (but ignoring Cleverly’s attempts to make conversation), and behind Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM.

Updated

Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch are now leading MPs to the Lords. They do seem to be chatting in quite a friendly manner – maybe commiserating about how badly both their parties did in the local elections?

Updated

In the Lords chamber the king is now on the throne. It is now time for Black Rod to go to the Commons chamber (which is only a couple of hundred yards away) to summon MPs to hear the speech.

MPs are sitting in the Commons waiting for the start of the state opening ceremony. But Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is not there.

The sun appeared to come out for the king’s arrival at parliament, the Press Association says.

Streeting preparing to resign as health secretary and challenge Starmer for Labour leadership, report claims

A new report suggests Wes Streeting will resign as health secretary tomorrow to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership. That is according to Aubrey Allegretti and Patrick Maguire from the Times. They report:

Wes Streeting has told allies that he is preparing to resign and trigger a leadership contest as soon as tomorrow.

The health secretary confronted Sir Keir Starmer this morning during a meeting ahead of the king’s speech that lasted just 16 minutes over the turmoil engulfing the Labour party.

Allies of Streeting who have spoken to him directly said that he has made clear that he is “going to go for it”.

They said that he is likely to resign on Thursday and mount a formal challenge for the leadership

The Times put this to a spokesperson for Streeting who said Streeting was proud of his record as health secretary, and not planning “to say anything following his meeting with the prime minister that might distract from the king’s speech”.

Updated

UK bond yields fall after Streeting challenge to Starmer fails to materialise

UK government borrowing costs have been nudging down this morning, in response to the overnight news suggesting Keir Starmer may have seen off a leadership challenge. Graeme Wearden has more on his business live blog.

Here are some pictures from the Lords, ahead of the arrival of the king.

Keir Starmer has left Downing Street ahead of the king’s speech, the Press Assocation reports. He walked a short distance to a car with his wife, Victoria, and did not respond to questions shouted from journalists opposite. It started hailing just before he left No 10.

SNP says it plans to hold no confidence vote in Starmer via amendment to king's speech debate

The SNP has said that it will table an amendment to the king’s speech proposing no confidence in Keir Starmer. Explaining the party’s tactic, Dave Doogan, the new SNP leader at Westminster, said:

This farce has to end now, so parliament can focus on the issues that really matter.

It’s clear the only way that can happen is for Keir Starmer to go.

He has lost the confidence of voters and his own MPs, and there’s no coming back from that. The Labour party must stop dragging this crisis out and put an end to it now.

If the Labour cabinet ministers don’t have the decency to do the right thing – then parliament must.

Unless they put an end to this chaos now, the SNP will table a motion of no confidence in Keir Starmer to draw things to a close.

There is very little chance of the SNP amendment being passed, assuming it does get put to a vote. Almost 100 Labour MPs have called for Starmer to go, and if all of them were to vote with the opposition for a no confidence motion, it would pass.

But a confidence motion normally brings out party loyalty among MPs. While many Labour MPs would like Starmer to go, almost none of them would like that to happen as part of an SNP/Tory parliamentary stunt.

Rafael Behr has a good column in the Guardian today on what has gone wrong with Keir Starmer’s premiership. Here is an extract.

Generous critics concede that Starmer is a scrupulous public servant, but note that a diligent pragmatist should have developed a fuller programme for government when still in opposition. It was naive, at best, to assume that the mere act of replacing wicked Conservative ministers with noble Labour ones would unblock the sluices that had apparently prevented good policy flowing out of Whitehall.

The harsher judgment is that the Starmer project made a fetish of pragmatism as an electoral tactic to the exclusion of policy; that avoidance of awkward questions – how to raise money for public services, how to repair the damage inflicted by Brexit – amounted to a ban on thinking about answers; that the determination to purge Labour of Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy was pursued with factional monomania that mislabelled dissent of any kind as toxic leftism.

The vast majority of MPs desperately wanted to support their leader. But they have struggled to discern what they are being loyal to when the government’s most familiar manoeuvre is the U-turn, its fiscal mandate was set to parameters chosen by the last Conservative government and its immigration policy sounds like a queasy tribute to Farage.

And here is the full article.

This is from Paul Scully, a former Tory MP, on the Starmer/Streeting meeting.

A meeting without coffee’ was a common name for a summons by the Chief Whip for a bollocking. Not sure that was the look Wes Streeting was going for.

One of the state opening traditions involves a government MP being sent to the Palace when the king attends parliament to serve as a hostage. It’s a tradition that dates from the time when relations between parliament and the monarchy were more hostile (indeed, at times murderous), and it is intended to give the king a guarantee that he will be allowed to return home safely.

Nic Dakin, a whip, is on hostage duty today.

Dakin tweet

Here are two MPs commenting on Keir Starmer’s meeting with Wes Streeting.

From James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary

I’m not sure that publicly humiliating a senior cabinet minister and possible leadership rival is a good tactic by Starmer.

From Karl Turner, who was elected as a Labour MP but who is currently suspended

Doc: NEXT

Wes: Morning Doctor.

Doc: Morning, now what’s the problem?

Wes: it’s the party doc, it just doesn’t feel like it’s working. It doesn’t feel like a party anymore.

Doc: I have some tablets for that, try to pretend it’s not happening the others are.

Doc: NEX

No 10 rejects Scottish government's claim independence will be on agenda when Starmer meets Swinney

Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.

An odd dispute of interpretation has emerged overnight between the Scottish and UK governments. Yesterday evening a Scottish government spokesperson announced that, during a call between first minister John Swinney and prime minister Kier Starmer, both parties agreed to meet face to face next month to discuss a referendum on independence.

Given Starmer’s consistently negative stance on independence this came as something of a surprise.

But immediately after Downing Street poured cold water on the notion, saying that the pair had agreed to discussed “shared issues” not the constitution.

The first minister’s spokesperson said:

It is particularly welcome that the prime minister agreed to meet next month to discuss a referendum on independence.

But a Downing Street spokesperson countered:

The PM committed to meeting to discussed shared issues including the cost of living.

As the PM told the first minister, the manifesto this government was elected on was unambiguous that ‘Labour does not support independence or another referendum’. Our position remains unchanged.

This morning both parties are sticking to their interpretation of the call.

Yesterday Zubir Ahmed, a health minister known to be a supporter of Wes Streeting, resigned from government. In an interview on the Today programme, Ahmed said he held Keir Starmer responsible for Labour’s defeat in Scotland, where Ahmed is MP for Glasgow South West. He told the programme:

We, in Scotland, as in the rest of the UK, had a devastating set of election results and we were simply unable to articulate our offering, or indeed critique, of the SNP government because of the noise created at the centre.

Therefore, we became, and the prime minister became, the inadvertent midwife of a fifth-term SNP government. And that scenario you saw then, people waiting for a speech to try and articulate his new direction, a strategy, and it simply was not forthcoming.

You saw thereafter a spontaneous outpouring of frustration by colleagues in the PLP.

Asked if the response was really “spontaneous”, Ahmed replied:

This is not one faction of the Labour party. This is about the Labour party articulating, I think, now a commonly held view that this is unsustainable and unstable.

Here are pictures of Wes Streeting leaving No 10. Ali Fortescue from Sky News says he “looked pretty stony-faced”.

From Kitty Donaldson at the i

If No 10 hoped not to overshadow the King’s Speech, a sub-20 minute meeting between Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting ain’t gonna cut it.

Here is some comment from journalists on the Starmer/Streeting meeting.

From Anne McElvoy at Politico

Starmer rigorously follow a bureaucratic control playbook in the handling of the Streeting encounter

- set meetings only on your terms

- put the meeting on a day when there is something bigger going (King’s speech) on to diminish the significance of the meeting

- keep meeting markedly short, thus being seem to be open to having “heard” what the irked colleague has to say : but not long enough to engage

- expect more of this because Prime Minister has the way he is going to handle the challenge

From Tom Harwood from GB News

Wes Streeting was in and out of Downing Street this morning in 20 minutes flat. Not a word to the media, but a long confident walk up and down the street before and after. Projecting determination.

From the BBC’s Joe Pike

Streeting went through the door of Number 10 at 08:24 and left at 08:41. So that is actually 17 minutes.

Brief.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, was on the morning broadcast round this morning. He had to give interviews before the meeting between Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting took place, or before he knew its outcome. He sought to play down the significance of it.

On the Today programme he said the two were “having a coffee” and dismissed claims it was a showdown. He said:

Anyone would think we were talking about the final scene at a Casino Royale or something, looking at some of the coverage that we’ve had.

And, on BBC Breakfast, he stressed that a leadership contest was not taking place.

There is no contest for the leadership of the Labour party.

There’s a very clear way to do that under our rules of 81 people nominating an alternative candidate. That hasn’t happened.

The contest hasn’t been triggered. We are moving on. I’m not saying yesterday wasn’t turbulent. It evidently was, but we are moving, getting on with delivery.

Labour-supporting unions predict Starmer will not lead party into next election

Keir Starmer will not lead his party into the next general election, Labour-supporting unions have predicted, in an intervention that threatens to further destabilise the prime minister after a damaging few days, Pippa Crerar reports.

Here is the joint statement issued by the 11 Labour-affiliated unions.

Labour’s affiliated unions have been clear that Labour cannot continue on its current path.

Whilst we recognise progress has been made, such as aspects of the Employment Rights Act and the increase in the minimum wage, the results at the election last week were devastating.

Labour is not doing enough to deliver the change that working people voted for at the general election.

Our focus is on the fundamental change of direction on economic policy and political strategy that unions have been clear is needed, and not on the personalities and unfolding political drama in Westminster.

It’s clear that the prime minister will not lead Labour into the next election, and at some stage a plan will have to be put in place for the election of a new leader.

This is a point where the future of the party we founded will be debated and determined – and we are working closely as unions to shape a shared vision on policy, political strategy and economic policy that will re-orient Labour back to working people, so Labour do what it was elected to do: govern in the interests of workers.

As Wes Streeting left No 10, reporters shouted questions at him, asking if he had resigned. He did not reply.

It is possible that he did, or that he was sacked. But on the BBC Henry Zeffman, the BBC’s chief political correspondent, says Streeting left in a ministerial car – implying he is still health secretary.

Zeffman says Streeting was in there for 17 minutes. Beth Rigby from Sky says it was 16 minutes.

Either way, that implies Starmer’s message to Streeting was simple and blunt.

Wes Streeting leaves No 10 after planned talks with Keir Starmer last just 17 minutes

Good morning. There are two main events in the diary today. At this point, it is not entirely clear which will turn out to be more consequential.

At 11.15am the king will arrive at parliament for the state opening. The king’s speech sets out the legislative programme for the next year. Kiran Stacey has a preview here.

In normal circumstances, this is one of the big events in the annual political calender – although most of what is in the speech has been well trailed, so it is more a day for ceremony than surprise. We will get plenty of information; alongside the speech, the government publishes a 100-page briefing pack, with outline details of all the bills coming up over the next 12 months.

But Keir Starmer had another appointment first. We learned last night that he would be meeting Wes Streeting, the health secretary who wants to replace him. Yesterday Starmer in effect challenged Streeting to ‘put up or shut up’ and, although some of Streeting’s allies have resigned from ministerial jobs, and others have joined the long list of Labour MPs publicly calling for Starmer’s resignation, by last night Streeting had still not launched a formal leadership challenge. In Downing Street they are starting to believe that Streeting has blinked because he does not have the support he needs to win a contest.

Streeting arrived for the meeting at Downing Street at 8.24am. He was out again 16 minutes later.

Streeting allies have indicated that they don’t intend to brief on what happened until the king’s speech is over, out of respect for Charles. But it does not seem likely that a meeting that swift was cordial. According to one report, Streeting was going to ask Starmer how he planned to “get us out of this mess”. Starmer clearly was not minded to give him a long, considered, collegiate answer. What we don’t know is whether or not Streeting said he would launch a leadership challenge.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11.15am: The king arrives at Westminster for the state opening. He delivers his speech at around 11.30am.

2.30pm: MPs started their debate on the speech. After speeches from two government backbenchers proposing and seconding the speech, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Starmer deliver speeches.

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UPDATE: Joe Pike from the BBC has checked the timings, and says Wes Streeting was in No 10 for 17 minutes, and so I have gone with his timings, not Sky’s, and amended the headline. See 9.20am.

Updated