RACISM and repression were front and centre in the government programme unveiled today, surely the last of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.

The King’s Speech includes a law giving effect to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s pledge to make to harder for migrants to gain settled status in Britain, legislation likely to be opposed by many Labour MPs.

There are also plans to give legal effect to Justice Secretary David Lammy’s plan to limit jury trials, which again is meeting widespread political resistance.

Legislation to introduce digital ID is also promised, although Sir Keir has had to water down his original proposals here in the teeth of opposition.

On the economy, there will be Bills cutting regulation of financial services and nationalising British Steel — government-controlled for the last year in any case — subject to a “public interest test.”

A law will also be brought in to fast-track laws in order to align with the European Union.

More positively, a Bill to end the leasehold racket across England and Wales was included in the speech. It will ban the use of leasehold for new flats and cap ground rents at £250 per year.

However, ministers have indicated this will not take effect until after the next election, the very definition of the “incremental” approach the beleaguered Prime Minister pledged to ditch earlier this week.

In the same slow-moving spirit, a proposal to crack down on ticket touting, which has led to wildly inflated prices for many events, has been reduced to merely “draft” legislation.

Other Bills include the abolition of NHS England, announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting long ago, and an overhaul of the provision of special educational needs teaching.

In a written introduction to the King’s Speech, the Prime Minister said: “For two decades our country has been buffeted by crisis after crisis: the 2008 financial crash, the Tory austerity that followed it, Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war.

“The response in each case was always a desperate attempt to get back to a status quo. Even though that same status quo had repeatedly made working people pay the price.

“This time must be different. And this King’s Speech shows it will be different, with a plan to make the country stronger and fairer.”