News
King’s
speech: Palace tells No. 10 to keep Charles out of Starmer’s crisis
The
formal opening of parliament comes as the British prime minister is fending off
threats to his leadership.
May 12,
2026 5:44 pm CET
By Tim
Ross
LONDON —
Buckingham Palace privately asked whether King Charles III should proceed as
planned with the ceremonial state opening of parliament on Wednesday, as Keir
Starmer faces a mounting leadership crisis that threatens to force him out of
office.
According
to people familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak freely, the
king’s team made clear in conversation with Starmer’s officials the importance
of protecting the monarch from any impression that he is being used for
political ends.
“The
Palace view is ‘we do not want to be any part of this conversation — do not
bring us into it,’” said one of the people familiar with the matter.
This
week, Starmer and his allies have pointed to Wednesday’s scheduled
parliamentary ceremony as a key reason to let him keep his job despite crushing
losses in local elections last week — and have dangled the promise of ambitious
reforms, including the full nationalization of British Steel, in the coming
address.
Parliament
is currently between sessions, and must be formally opened to consider state
business. The centerpiece of the opening ceremony is the king’s speech, which
the monarch delivers to lawmakers from the gilded throne in the House of Lords.
In this address, which is largely written by the prime minister’s team, the
king sets out the government’s legislative plans for months ahead.
But there
is no certainty that those plans will survive amid a growing revolt against
Starmer’s leadership from furious Labour MPs who blame him for their party’s
dismal polling and disastrous election results last week.
No. 10
did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Cabinet Office and
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
According
to the people familiar with the matter, in one recent discussion Charles’s
senior aide asked top government officials including Cabinet Secretary Antonia
Romeo whether the king should go ahead with Wednesday’s ceremony.
The
Palace was told that it was constitutionally correct for the king to open
parliament on Wednesday as planned, the people said. Unless parliament is
formally convened again, MPs and members of the House of Lords cannot meet
there to debate priorities, question ministers or pass new laws.
But in
the discussions with the Palace, which also included Starmer’s office, there
was a general acknowledgement that this year’s ceremony would be an awkward
moment for the king.
“It is
very embarrassing for the king that his government is such a shambles that he
has to read out something that may or may not still be the government’s program
by the end of the week,” according to the same person quoted above.
The
Palace made clear that the king would fulfill his constitutional duties as
required but that it should be for the politicians to handle the political
crisis and the monarch should not be involved.
The state
opening marks the formal start to the new parliamentary session. It is full of
pageantry, including soldiers on horseback, trumpet fanfares, and a horse-drawn
carriage taking the king from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster.
One
option mooted before the 2015 election — when a hung parliament was widely
expected — was to scale back the state opening and keep Queen Elizabeth II away
from parliament at a time a political uncertainty.
Instead,
the speech would have been read out by the leader of the House of Lords, a
cabinet minister, and the queen would not have been involved until it was clear
that either Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron or Ed Miliband — then
Labour leader — could command a majority in the Commons. Such contingency plans
were ultimately never needed because Cameron won an unexpected majority.
Dan Bloom and Annabelle Dickson contributed reporting.
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