Queen Elizabeth II formally opened a new
session of Britain’s Parliament on Thursday with a
speech laying out Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
plans to use his commanding majority to take
the U.K. out of the European Union and shake up
the country’s public services.
Johnson’s Conservative Party won an 80-strong
majority in the 650-seat House of Commons last
week on a pledge to “get Brexit done” by leaving
the European Union on Jan. 31, and a broad
promise to end years of public spending austerity.
Now Johnson has to turn his election pledges
into political reality.
The Queen’s Speech — written by the
government but read out by the monarch from
atop a golden throne in the House of Lords
— rattled through several dozen bills that the
government plans to pass in the coming year.