Britain’s King Charles III will set out the agenda of a fragile U.K. government on Wednesday after Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced down calls for his resignation that sparked heavy selling pressure on gilts in the previous session.
The State Opening of Parliament and King’s Speech, a grand affair in which the monarch presents the government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary period, comes as Starmer’s political leadership is threatened by the political fallout of the ruling Labour Party’s poor performance in local elections last week.
Starmer appears to have seen off any immediate leadership challenge, for now, and will hope that today’s pomp and pageantry can shift attention away from the current crisis.
That doesn’t mean the leadership threat has gone away. Ahead of King’s address in the House of Lords later Wednesday morning, Starmer had a brief meeting, reportedly lasting only 17 minutes, with one of his main leadership rivals, Wes Streeting.
Streeting — the U.K’s health secretary — had reportedly asked to meet privately with Starmer on Tuesday but had been refused. That came after a crunch cabinet meeting in which Starmer vowed to keep leading the Labour Party, despite over 80 lawmakers calling on the PM to resign.
