PM unveils draft Queen's Speech

9:35am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown will seek to regain the political initiative with a legislative programme for the coming year designed to show the Government is "on the side of the British people".

The draft Queen's Speech will include measures to extend "personalisation" of public services like health and education, as well as reforms to regulation of the banking industry and new support for the housing market.

In a package insiders said would "create greater economic prosperity and deliver a fairer Britain", Mr Brown will also offer to hand over power to local communities to have more say over their lives.

This could include new rights for the public to scrutinise and seek redress from agencies ranging from councils to police and health bodies.

The Prime Minister aims to use the occasion to add momentum to Labour's efforts to claw its way back out of the deepest trough in its fortunes for more than a decade.

Following its drubbing in the May 1 local elections, the party has tumbled in the polls - trailing the Tories by 16% in the latest survey - and Mr Brown's personal position has been undermined by backbench sniping and unwelcome revelations in the memoirs of former New Labour bigwigs such as John Prescott and Cherie Blair.

The PM will hope that Tuesday's announcement of a £2.7 billion package to offset the abolition of the 10p tax rate has drawn the sting from an issue which is held largely to blame for Labour's devastating council defeats earlier this month.

And he believes that the announcement of a raft of proposed new bills covering departments from health to schools, communities and justice will give a new sense of purpose and drive to his premiership in the run-up to next week's crucial by-election in Crewe and Nantwich.

It is only the second time that MPs have been given an early look at the Government's legislative plans ahead of the Queen's Speech in the autumn.

When Mr Brown introduced the innovation soon after entering 10 Downing Street last summer, he said it would allow fuller consultation, but it also provides him with an additional opportunity to seize control of the political agenda.

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