On the day the queen came to westminster for the State Opening of parliament. Her majesty set out the bills the government wants to pass, in a speech dominated by brexit. My government will seek to maintain a deep and special partnership with the european allies. And to forge new Trading Relationships across the globe. Labour dismissed the programme as thin gruel. But theresa may said her government would build a stronger and safer country that worked for everyone. The lords too give their first verdict on the speech, while back in the Commons A Conservative mp uses his big moment to speak up for the over 40s. May i wish to reassure members, may i reassure the Prime Minister, lam still young. Laughter still thrusting. But lets begin at the start of the day. This was a rather unusual State Opening. Because no one was expecting a general election at the start ofjune, there was no time to prepare for the traditional pomp and ceremony with coaches, horses and mass ranks of guardsmen. And so it was a very scaled Back Procession that set off from buckingham palace. With the queen travelling by Car To Westminster accompanied by the prince of wales. The duke of edinburgh was unusually absent too, having been taken to hospital for treatment for an infection. Inside the lords there was a more familiar look to things with peers in their traditional red robes and ermine despite the sweltering heat, and the yeoman of the guard lining the route. When the queen, without her ceremonial robes, and Prince Charles arrived, they processed through the lords Gallery Walking behind the Imperial State Crown and took their seats on the thrones in the house of lords. And then it was time to despatch black rod to the House Of Commons to summons mps to hear the speech. As is the tradition, the door to the commons was slammed in his face, showing the independence of the commons. And there was a more recent tradition, a heckle from veteran labour mp dennis skinner. Mr speaker, the queen commands this honourable house to attend her majesty immediately in the house of peers. Get your skates on first race is half past two and with that mps left the commons processing out of their chamber through Central Lobby and on into the house of lords. Normally the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition exchange pleasa ntries, but there was little chit chat between theresa may and jeremy corbyn. And when mps had arrived at the bar at the back of the lords, the queen read out the contents of the speech the 64th time shed performed the Role Beginning with the governments plans for brexit. My governments priority is to secure the best possible deal as the country leaves the European Union. My ministers are committed to working with parliament, the devolved administrations, business and others to build the widest possible consensus on the countrys future outside the European Union. Establishing new National Policies on immigration, international sanctions, nuclear safeguards, agriculture and fisheries. There was a pledge to bring in a bill on the next phase of high speed two. And a pledge to reform technical education. There was no word on Grammar Schools. But, instead my government will continue to work to ensure that every child has the opportunity to attend a good school and that all schools are fairly funded. There was a pledge to Prioritise Mental Health in england. And then it was on to housing. Proposals will be brought forward to ban unfair tenants fees, promote fairness and transparency in the Housing Market and help ensure more homes are built. My ministers will work to improve social care and will bring forward proposals for consultation. Thered be a Public Inquiry into the Grenfell Tower block fire. To ascertain the causes and ensure that the appropriate lessons are learned. To support victims my government will take forward measures to introduce an independent Public Advocate who will act for bereaved families after a public disaster, and support them at public inquests. In the light of the terrorist attacks in manchester and london, my governments Counterterrorism Strategy will be reviewed to ensure that the police and Security Services have all powers they need and that the length of custodial sentences for terrorism related offences are sufficient to keep the population safe. So, a legislative programme containing 27 bills with several focused on the countrys departure from the European Union, and largely stripped of the more controversial elements of the conservatives election manifesto. The nine minute address saw symbolic policies such as the expansion of Grammar Schools shelved and others like controversial social care plans given the status of consultations. And there was one other omission no mention of the proposed state visit by the president of the united states, donald trump. A couple of hours later mps gathered to begin their debate on what had been proposed, but before they began they held a minutes silence to remember those whod lost their lives in the recent Terror Attacks and the Grenfell Tower block fire. On these occasions the Opposition Leader gives their thoughts on the speech before the Prime Minister. Jeremy corbyn began by talking about the fire at Grenfell Tower which left dozens dead and hundreds homeless. What makes it both a tragedy and an outrage is that every single one of those deaths could have been avoided. Something has gone horrifically wrong. The North Kensington community are demanding answers, and they are entitled to those answers. Thousands of People Living in tower blocks around the country need urgent reassurance, and the emergency services, especially fire and rescue services, in this case, deserve our deepest respect and support. Turning to the speech itself, he argued there was very little in it for a two year session of parliament. A Threadbare Legislative Programme from a government that has lost its majority and apparently ran out of ideas altogther. This would be a thin legislative programme even if it was for one year, but for two years . Two yea rs 7 theres not enough in there to fill up one year he turned to what was not in the speech. To cheers he said there was no mention of scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance for some pensioners. Mercifully, neither is there any mention of ditching the triple lock. Pensioners across britain will also be grateful to know that the tory election commitment on that has also been binned. And older people and their families might also be keen for some clarity around the governments policy on social care. Whether its still what was originally set out in the conservative manifesto, or whether it is what it was later amended to, or whether it is now Something Else entirely. And im sure itsjust a matter of historical record, but looking on a conservative website today the manifesto has been taken down in its entirety. Laughter it apparently no longer exists. He turned to brexit. No deal is not better than a bad deal. It is a bad deal and not viable for this country. We need full access to the Single Market and a Customs Arrangement that provide britain, as the brexit secretary has pledged, and i quote, with the exact same benefits as now. Neither must arbitrary targets for immigration be prioritised over the jobs and Living Standards of the people of this country. Lets decide our Immigration Policy on the basis of the needs of our communities and our economy, not to the tune of Dog Whistle Cynicism of Lynton Crosby or the Hate Campaigns or indeed. Or indeed. Or indeed, mr speaker, the Hate Campaigns of some sections of our press, whose idea of patriotism is to base themselves in an overseas tax haven. And he concluded by reflecting on the outcome of the general election. The Prime Minister began the Election Campaign saying if i lose just six seats i will lose this election. When it came to it, she lost more than four times that many seats to labour alone from cardiff to canterbury, from stockton to kensington, people chose hope over fear. And they sent an unequivocal message that austerity must be brought to an end. Theresa may also reflected on the recent Terror Attacks in london and manchester and said the queens speech included measures to combat terrorism. We will work to Reach International agreements that regulate cyberspace, to prevent the spread of extremism and terrorist planning, and encourage Tech Companies to do more to remove harmful content from their networks. And we will establish a new commission for countering extremism, as a statutory body to help fight hatred and extremism in the same way as we have fought racism, because this extremism is every bit as insidious and destructive to our values, and we will stop at nothing to defeat it. She moved on to the grenfell fire. The whole country was heartbroken by the horrific loss of life and the utter devastation that we have seen. I am sure the whole house willjoin me in sending our deepest condolences to the friends and families of all those who lost loved ones, and today we also think of those who survive but lost everything. One lady i had met ran from the fire wearing no more than a t shirt and a pair of knickers. She had lost absolutely everything. So let me be absolutely clear, the support on the Ground Forfamilies in the initial hours was not good enough. People were left without belongings, without roofs over their heads, without even basic information about what had happened, what they should do and where they could seek help. That was a failure of the state, local and national, to help people when they needed it most. As Prime Minister, i apologise for that failure. And as Prime Minister i have taken responsibility for doing what we can to put things right. Mrs may turned to labours performance in the recent election. He fought a Spirited Campaign and he came a good second. Laughter which was. Which was both better than the pundits predicted and that many of his own mps hoped for. Thank you the election also showed that, as it faces the big challenges of our future, our country is divided red versus blue, young versus old, leave versus remain. As i said here last week, the test for all of us is whether we choose to reflect divisions or help the country overcome them. With humility and resolve, this government will seek to do the latter. We will do what is in the National Interest and we will work with anyone in any party that is prepared to do the same. A labour mp turned to brexit. How is the interim Prime Minister going to convince. Laughter going to convince the country that she can negotiate a successful brexit within the time limit with 27 other eu countries, when she hasnt been able even to negotiate the deal with ten democratic unionist members of this house in the time limit before the queens speech . Can i thank the honourable gentleman for giving me the opportunity to welcome the work that the right honourable member, the Secretary Of State for exiting the European Union, has undertaken in relation to preparing our negotiations and starting those formal negotiations on monday of this week . And i will be in brussels for the eu Council Later this week taking that further forward. And she concluded that the last few months had been a difficult tiime for the uk. It has been an unsettling time which has tested the spirit of our country, but we are a resilient country. Our response to disaster and acts of terror which takes the lives of innocent people must be this compassion, unity, resolve. For we are a great nation and a great people. We have been through and survived the toughest of times before, and we thrived. Once again, we can and will grow stronger from the challenges we face today. The queens speech on its own will not solve every challenge our country faces. But it is a step forward. It is a step forward to building a more compassionate, more united and more confident nation. That is what this government will aim to achieve, its what this queens speech will deliver. And i commend the queens speech to the house. It was then the turn of other Party Leaders and backbench mps to give their initial reactions to the governments plans. And much of the focus was the arguments that lie ahead over brexit. The Prime Ministers gamble backfired and shes desperately clung onto power, at least for now, and stumbled into the brexit negotiations on monday morning, regardless of the almost all male team equipped with no credible plan, no mandate and seemingly no functional government. I can see the Prime Minister floundering, but where is the stable government that the Prime Minister promised us . It is not here. The longest serving mp, the father of the house argued for continued membership of the Single Market. We can show that we can rise above this. Im glad that there are channels that are open to the liberals, the labour party, i am sure the scottish nationalists we dont really know what the basis is on from which we are Negotiating Brexit at the moment. I think its will have to be carried by what i think is an extremely sensible cross Party Majority that this house could easily command, if we were able to put in to place some processes to achieve it. One, we want to do Free Trade Agreements with other countries around the world and you cant do it if youre in the Customs Market or the customs union. Two, they made it very clear that they had to pay Budget Contributions and accept free movement, which we have no intention of doing. It is one of the few things the two campaigns agreed upon. We all told the British Public we would be leaving the Single Market and the customs union. That was repeated in the article 50 letter and was appreciated by the eu and voted on and approved overwhelmingly by the House Of Commons of the last parliament. Her majesty has launched many ships in her time, never such an empty vessel as the one today. I am not sure whether wasting the monarchs time is a treasonous act, i hope for the Prime Ministers sake it is not, but the queens speech shows that we have a government who has lost touch with its people and lost touch with reality. The Prime Minister continues to pursue, it is clear from the recent statement, that she seeks to pursue a extreme version of brexit, having failed to gain any mandate to do so. There is no plan to keep britain in the Single Market as the right honourable member mentioned earlier or indeed for the customs union. We will therefore seek to amend the queens speech to add in membership of the Single Market and of the customs union. When people voted in the European Union referendum to leave the European Union, they voted to leave the Single Market and the customs union. I believe that Northern Ireland must, along with the rest of the united kingdom, do likewise. And there was a clear warning over the direction the dup wanted to see. We will work with government during the course of the next period in this party to ensure that we do deliver prosperity, to deliver greater spending on health and education and that we do see an end to the tunnel, the dark tunnel of austerity. This queens speech does not herald any hope for my constituents. This government and the preceding government have knocked out the rungs of the ladder of opportunity for so many of my constituents. That reach to the first rung is now very high and it is very difficult to get into further education without a loan. Or into nursing without the nursing bursary. When southern is not happening because of the election result, no Grammar Schools, no proposals in social care, no scrapping of Free School Meals for infants. We need to see a government, not discovered, we need to see at the next election a government that looks at those who are aspirant, gives them the opportunity to succeed. This government, this queens speech is not doing that. I wish the government well in what it is trying to do on brexit, i will give it my support, not unqualified, i will try as a backbencher to be helpfully critical. I appreciate were going, i want to work with other members of this house to try and achieve a sensible outcome that doesnt damage our economic well being and our national security. Both of those things are at risk. If we dont get this right, we are going to be in very serious trouble. Just like mps, peers have also been away from westminster for the last eight weeks. But unlike mps, their lordships havent had to face any battles with the electorate. When the lords commenced its debate the first speaker was a seasoned conservative and former cabinet minister. It looks like a good election for labour. Indeed, they are behaving as if they have won it, despite being 56 seats behind the tories and the new rapturous enthusiasm on the benches opposite Forjeremy Corbyn is only matched by their relief that he is not running the country. Then came the youngest member of the lords, 38 year old gabrielle bertin. She spoke about theories why the State Opening had been put back two days. Some of you may know that i was David CameronsPress Secretary and whilst i have huge admiration for my former boss, i think it is fair to say he did give me one or two pr challenges over the years. However, faced with an unforeseen, shall we put it, delay of the queens speech, i dont think even i could have come up with slow drying ink on vellum, so i have to hand it to my successors in number ten for that stroke of genius. Lord newby said hed struggled to write his speech because of uncertainty over what might be in the queens speech. But sunday came and the fog hadnt lifted. The only new announcement was that because it was proving so difficult to write this years queen speech, the government had decided not to have one next year at all. I suspect there are a number of issues on which the conservative and dup government might not find all the mps of their respective parties in total agreement. Particularly, if the Prime Minister fails to putjobs and the economy of this country at the heart of the brexit negotiations. My lords, i want to be clear on this, should the House Of Commons send this house legislation that has been amended from the governments original intentions then ministers should not seek to use your lordships house to thwart the mandate of a democratically elected house. Last year, the vote was not just to leave the eu, it was a profound and justified expression that our country often does not work in the way that it should for millions of ordinary, working families. For that reason, we will work to build a stronger economy so we can improve peoples Living Standards and fund the Public Services on which we all depend. Finally, the tradition is that the opening speeches in the commons on the day of State Opening are Light Hearted affairs, given by two government mps, one older hand and one bright young thing. It fell to Richard Benyon to get the day under way and he revealed some family history. Mr speaker, im not the first Richard Benyon to be asked to move the royal address. My great, great grandfather was the mp for berkshire between 1860 and 1876. Though, in many ways a great man, there is no record of him ever troubling hansard with any speech. Even a maiden speech. However, he was asked by disraeli to move the loyal address in 1869, but replied that though mindful of the honour as a matter of principle, he never spoke in parliament. As you know, my father was one of your predecessors as member for buckingham and he told that story to Speaker Thomas Who clasp a hand to his head and said, how i wish there were more like him in the house. Mr speaker, i still think of myself as young. But being asked to do this singular honour reminds me that i am, as golfers put it, on the back nine. In the election that we have alljust enjoyed or endured, whatever your perspective, i faced a Labour Candidate who was born a year after i was selected to fight the seat i now hold. Teams of therapists will be needed to help me overcome the brutal reality that ive gone straight from being young thruster to old codger with nothing in between. The second speech came from another conservative. It is a great privilege for me, the son of ghanaian immigrants who came to this country in the 1960s to perform this duty today. My mother lived in liverpool where her elder brother was studying medicine. She remembers sir Winston Churchills funeral and liverpool winning the fa cup. She certainly would never have believed that her only son would come a british member of parliament. This is one of the strengths of this country. I know people are wondering, the custom is for this speech to be delivered by a young, thrusting mp. After seven years in this house, i was slightly confused about this description. One of my honourable friends, a formerwhip, said, oh, youre meant to be the young one, are you . In my intake of 2010, i have seen such meteoric high flyers as the business secretary, a Home Secretary and even a lord chancellor. And then theres me. May i reassure the Prime Minister i am still young, still thrusting. And thats it from me for now but do join me at the same time tomorrow when that debate on the queens speech continues, but for now from me, goodbye. Hello, there. We saw the peak of the hit wave on wednesday afternoon, with temperatures across Southern Britain Soaring into the low to mid 30s celsius. It was 35 degrees recorded at heathrow, which was the warmest day of the year, so far, but also the Warmestjune Day since 1976. Wales also saw its hottest day with 31 degrees recorded in cardiff. Further north, though, it is a little bit cooler, and we see a thundery breakdown developing, particularly across Northern England and West Scotland as we head into wednesday evening. That he will continue to retreat back into the near continent as cooler and fresher conditions push in off the atlantic, with a fair old breeze. This introduction of cooler air into the heat will spark off further thunderstorms through the overnight period. Mainly in the northern half of the uk, tending to ease towards thursday morning. Well have a lot of mist and murk developing across western coastal areas. It will be a touch fresher, here, but still a warm and muggy start first thing on thursday. It means will be a warm and humid start in the south east, but we will likely see a line of showers and thunderstorms move through the midlands and in towards the south east during the morning period, and then clearing away. And then another ripple of showers and thunderstorms pushing in towards Northern England and Eastern England in the afternoon. So quite a messy picture. There will be some sunshine in the north and west much cooler and fresher here. Cooler and fresher in the south east, 25 or 26 degrees. Mid 20s instead of mid 30s. You will notice that difference. Late on thursday, things will turn more unsettled across scotland and Northern Ireland, thats because this vigorous area of low pressure arrives. This sets the scene for things becoming more unsettled from friday onwards, with cooler and fresher air pushing in off the atlantic. So well have some sunshine in the south and east on friday. Further north, a band of rain moving through, and some of it will be quite heavy. The scotland and Northern Ireland, a breezy and windy day as that low pressure sweeps through. It will feel cooler and fresher, as well, with temperatures in the mid to upper teens celsius, here. We could make 25 degrees in the south east. Into saturday, a breezy day, as you can see with these wind arrows. A few showers will develop, mainly across the north and west. Top temperatures 20 23 celsius in the south east, so still feeling cool and fresher. Sunday, winds will come down from the north westerly direction, so it will be a touch cooler still across scotland. Further south east, we could make 21 or 22 degrees. So the main message is its turning cool over the next few days. Certainly over the weekend, it will feel cooler. It will be breezy with a mixture of sunshine and showers. Hello, im tom donkin. 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