How the labour movement reacted to the 2022 Queen’s Speech

Prince Charles outlined the government’s legislative plans in the Queen’s Speech this morning, delivering the annual address to parliament for the first time after the Queen was forced to pull out due to mobility problems.

The Prince of Wales announced plans for 38 pieces of legislation including a levelling up and regeneration bill, a Brexit freedoms bill, a schools bill, an energy security bill, the long-promised online safety bill and a public order bill.

In his response, Keir Starmer declared that the address was “thin” and “bereft of ideas or purpose” and that the agenda set out showed that the Tory government’s “time has passed”. Here is what the rest of the labour movement had to say…

Trade unions

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Today, bad bosses up and down the country will be celebrating. No employment bill means vital rights that ministers had promised – like default flexible working, fair tips and protection from pregnancy discrimination – risk being ditched for good.

“And it means no action on the scourge of insecure work and ending exploitative practices like zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire. After the P&O scandal, dragging our outdated labour laws into the 21st century has never been more urgent.”

On the seafarer minimum wage enforcement plans, O’Grady added: “This proposal is feeble and likely unworkable. The government has done nothing to tackle the most flagrant labour abuse in years by P&O. Only stronger employment legislation that boosts worker protections and stops companies firing on the spot will prevent another P&O-type scandal.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Workers and communities are suffering. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and a recession is looming. So where is the programme to address these issues head on? Where are the laws to stop profiteering and prevent attacks on workers? Where is the help for the millions who are already faced with the shocking decision of whether to heat or eat?”

She added: “We are hearing lots of talk, but that is all it is – talk, not action. This is why voters look at Westminster and despair and it has to change. Unite will remain focused on protecting jobs, raising pay and improving lives, and I am determined that we will wake up Westminster in the process.”

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “This is a government that’s run out of ideas. Thirty-eight laws proposed but there are no answers to the biggest cost-of-living crisis in recent times.

“Ministers haven’t grasped the seriousness of the situation. Families are being forced into debt and are going hungry. Nothing announced today will make a shred of difference to the millions crushed by soaring living costs.”

GMB general secretary Gary Smith said: “The government needs to understand we can’t have energy security if it keeps sending essential renewables work overseas to authoritarian regimes. For too long, ministers have sat back and allowed thousands of UK jobs in this key industry of the future to be lost to other nations.

“The UK Infrastructure Bank Bill offers a great opportunity to fix this. GMB will be campaigning hard to make sure the government walks its own talk and finally takes action that will support businesses and create the jobs our country so desperately needs.”

Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said the government has “again failed” to take the “substantial action” needed to address the “crisis on our high streets and in the wider retail industry” and reiterated the union’s call for a “retail recovery plan” including a “fundamental reform of business rates”.

Lillis said it was “deeply disappointing” that a “much needed and long overdue New Deal for Workers” was not included in the Queen’s Speech and argued that there needs to be “lasting and fundamental change to the way society views workers” including a minimum wage of at least £12 per hour, an end to insecure employment and action to ensure that retail jobs are no longer underpaid and undervalued.

Prospect research director Andrew Pakes responded to the data reform bill, saying: “Data protection is more important than ever with the rise of surveillance software both at work and in our communities. We need to ensure that the UK is building world-class data rights rather than engaging in a race to the bottom on privacy and standards.”

Labour Party

“Boris Johnson is failing Britain’s workers again with yet more broken promises,” deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner tweeted. “The Prime Minister pledged enhanced rights and protections at work, but is instead dragging Britain’s workers down – in a race to the bottom.”

Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “The first line of the Queen’s Speech today should have been: ‘There will be an emergency budget to give the British people real help with the cost of living pressures they face.’ Labour would take up to £600 off energy bills with a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers.”

Shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan tweeted: “This [Queen’s Speech] smacks of a [government] that is out of ideas and out of touch. After 12 years of low growth, high inflation and spiralling taxes, Labour would prioritise our world-class public services, tackle crime and ensure the best education for children.”

“For the millions of families facing soaring energy bills, the government’s energy bill is hopelessly inadequate,” Shadow Climate Change and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband tweeted. “Nothing to tackle the cost of living crisis, nothing to bring forward the energy efficiency measures we need, no green energy sprint to bring down bills.”

Shadow women and equalities minister Taiwo Owatemi tweeted: “This Queen’s Speech will do nothing to make Britain more equal. No plan to tackle inequalities facing BAME communities so visibly exposed by the pandemic. Government has again reneged on promise to introduce ethnicity pay gap reporting, ignoring calls by [the TUC] and [CBI].”

Andy McDonald said: “The Tories promised 20 times to bring forward an employment bill, since first announcing it in 2019. Now the government has left it out of the Queen’s Speech entirely. They’re sitting on their hands as workers are subjected to abhorrent exploitation.”

“This Queen’s Speech shows the Tories don’t have a clue what life is like for ordinary people,” backbencher Zarah Sultana tweeted. “Facing biggest fall in living standards since records began, the government failed to outline *any* plans to solve this crisis. They’re out-of-touch [and] we need to get them out of power.”

Richard Burgon tweeted: “You wouldn’t know from the Tory Queen’s Speech that there’s a social emergency in our country. While millions fall into poverty, the government refuses to act. That’s why I’ve just put down an amendment for a wealth tax bill that could create a huge emergency fund to help people.”

Charities, think tanks, campaign groups

Momentum described the Queen’s Speech as “deeply sinister” and “authoritarian”, highlighting plans to abolish the Human Rights Act, restrict freedom to boycott and attack civil liberties and the right to protest and calling on Labour to “loudly oppose these measures”.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation senior economist Rebecca McDonald said: “Despite claims in today’s speech that easing the cost of living was a priority for this government, there were no new support measures announced.

“This will be deeply worrying for families on low incomes, particularly those who have just experienced a real-terms cut to their benefits after the government failed to uprate benefits in line with inflation last month.

“Nevertheless, the inclusion of the long-awaited renters reform bill and social housing regulation bill in today’s Queen Speech is very welcome. Together, these bills should help drive up standards and strengthen renters’ rights in both the private and social rented sectors.”

Head of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Centre for Economic Justice Dr George Dibb said: “The government has called this a Queen’s Speech to ‘grow the economy’ but there is disturbingly little in their legislative programme that will make a real difference.”

He added: “The British economy is facing a second lost decade and this isn’t going to be prevented by some cosmetic cutting of Brexit red tape that businesses don’t even want. This crisis calls for a major restructuring of the UK economy to drive higher wages, productivity, innovation, investment and faster decarbonisation.”

A spokesperson for IPPR North said: “This parliament must prioritise turning the levelling up rhetoric into reality. The agenda has stalled because of government’s inaction and is now under pressure from the soaring cost of living.”

They added: “The levelling up and regeneration bill announced today included some welcome proposals including plans to help struggling high streets and better empower local people in planning decisions – but the government will need to be far bolder if it is to rewire power in England and narrow regional divides.”

Resolution Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell tweeted: “Nothing material today on the short-term nightmare of cost of living – government has basically made up its mind to wait until September (when we find out how bad winter energy prices will be). The pattern here is help being too slow, too small and poorly targeted.

“Rightly, the government is highlighting growth as the essential pre-condition for living standards rising. What they aren’t doing is anything that will make a material difference on that front – which is why wages are forecast to basically be flat for over 15 years.”

The Fabian Society said the Queen’s Speech reflects an “exhausted, mean-spirited government that is out of ideas and has no agenda to change the country” and outlined 12 proposals for bills that should have been in the Speech, including an affordable homes bill, a fair immigration bill, a good jobs and workplace rights bill and an income security bill.

New Economics Foundation chief executive Miatta Fahnbulleh said: “Last week, voters sent a clear message to the government: you’re not doing enough to tackle the cost of living crisis. People have had enough of the government doing nothing whilst millions are forced to turn their heating off and skip meals.

“Today’s Queen’s speech was a chance for the government to act – to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and truly level up the country. Not one that plays politics and stokes culture wars, without making any material difference to people’s lives.”