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The King’s Speech is supposed to be the landmark moment in the life of parliament.

It is the occasion for a prime minister to set down his or her mission for government, and outline the laws they will pass to try to achieve their goals.

But this year, the moment will belong to King Charles III, rather than Rishi Sunak, for two reasons.

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First is the sheer symbolism of the new monarch delivering the first King’s Speech in over seven decades.

An epoch-making moment, it reminds us all in the most formal of settings, laced with symbolism, that we have passed from the first Elizabethan era to the new Carolean age.

Second is the reality of Mr Sunak’s predicament.

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His first King’s Speech in power will be less about landing a vision and more about holding position, for this is a prime minister running out of time and with little space to push through new ideas.

Running out of time because very little can be done between now and an election when it comes to enacting new laws.

And even if Mr Sunak can get legislation onto the statute book, there isn’t time for that to make a material difference to voters before a general election.

He is also a prime minister constrained by a resistive rump in his party who he is not willing to take on.

Running out of ideas, because what we expect to see in the King’s Speech is hardly a grand plan for government.

King Charles III speaks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, during a reception at Buckingham Palace, London, ahead of the Cop27 Summit. Picture date: Friday November 4, 2022.
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While King Charles will deliver the speech, it will be the policy plan of Rishi Sunak that will be under the microscope

Mr Sunak is instead going for a combination of new laws to create dividing lines with Labour ahead of the election (including annual oil and gas licensing, and strike laws), seeing through policies being worked up by predecessors (such as leasehold reform) and the odd Sunak initiative (banning tobacco sales for anyone born on or after January 2009 and longer jail sentences of violent offenders).

Talk to his team and they frame the King’s Speech as a “continuation” of what the prime minister has sought to put in place from the summer onwards – his tilt at long-term decision making as they put it, rather than a “wow moment”.

One senior insider said: “The King’s Speech isn’t a conference speech or an Autumn Statement. There isn’t a new shiny policy.

“It’s not going to be a wow moment, but it’s a continuation of travel of where we have been going and delivering, rather than focusing on polls day to day and week to week.”

Instead, Number 10 argues that the programme for government backs up the prime minister’s commitment to long-term decision-making; through growing the economy – be that energy security, regulatory frameworks for tech; strengthening society with legislation on smoking, reform on leaseholds and dealing with antisocial behaviour; more action on crime and safety and focusing on our national interest, be that around climate change, artificial Intelligence or security.

King’s Speech live: Watch our special programme on Sky News, hosted by Sophy Ridge, from 10.30am today. You will also be able to follow the event live via the Politics Hub on the Sky News app and website.

Read more:
Analysis: King will have to announce measures we know he is bound to dislike
Explainer: What will be in the King’s Speech?

But some colleagues believe the sum of parts in this speech doesn’t add up to much and certainly not a cogent vision for a country losing patience with the Conservatives.

“There’s not much in here on cost of living,” says one senior colleague who laments that Mr Sunak didn’t do more on housing – planning and green belt reform – ahead of the general election to show voters he really is a candidate for change.

“It would have been bold, but it got shoved in the too-hard-to-do box,” said the former senior minister. “A load of colleagues – 50 even 70 – would be against it, but when you have Labour and Starmer nimby bashing, you’d have got it through with Labour votes and send a message to under 40s that we are serious about helping them.”

And there are pockets of Mr Sunak’s backbenches, MPs looking to Canadian Tory leader Pierre Poilierve as inspiration, noting that his decision to turn the Conservatives into the party of housebuilding has revived the centre right’s fortunes and brought younger voters.

But Mr Sunak does have his eye on an election in a different way, as he uses the King’s Speech to try to lay traps for Labour, to draw dividing lines between the government and the opposition over thorny issues that have the potential to ignite in voters’ minds – be it around net zero and environmental policies (think the row over ultra-low emission zones) or strikes.

On the former, the government will legislate for annual North Sea oil and gas licensing rounds to highlight the PM’s “pragmatic, proportionate and realistic” approach to net zero, in contrast to Labour, which has said it will honour existing licenses but has ruled out granting new ones.

The PM will also introduce new strike laws to protect public services over Christmas, with minimum service regulations for rail workers, ambulance staff and border security staff.

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Number 10 figures believe these dividing lines showcase Mr Sunak’s values while also putting Labour on the spot about theirs.

But Labour insiders tell me they are “not worried” about the attacks.

“If they want to talk about their track record on energy bills and strikes, we’d be very happy,” says one figure close to Sir Keir Starmer.

Another senior party figure said this approach just showed how out of touch the Tory party is.

“Finding dividing lines for us? Do they seriously think that is how voters want to see the government run the country?

“Sunak’s meant to be the change? Where’s the change? Where are the answers to the big challenges facing the country on the cost of living and the NHS. It’s just more of the same. It doesn’t deal with the things voters care about.”

Even as Westminster chews over the content of the speech, while taking in the spectacle, I suspect the country has tuned out.

Because in the political backdrop to Tuesday’s pageantry, the problems are piling up for the prime minister.

It is the grisly details of the COVID inquiry revealing a government that was woefully unprepared and ill-equipped to tackle the pandemic at a moment of national crisis.

There are serious questions being raised as to whether the Conservative Party failed to act on rape allegations surrounding an MP and instead paid for an alleged victim to receive treatment in a private hospital.

The prime minister said on Monday that the allegations were “very serious” as he urged anyone with evidence of criminal acts to talk to the police.

There is the Daily Mail’s serialisation of former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries’s book on the downfall of Boris Johnson again throwing into sharp relief party infighting, while disquiet grows among some MPs about the home secretary’s provocative language, be it around protest marches or the homeless.

All of it has turned the public off, say some Conservative MPs, who fear that, whatever Mr Sunak does now, he won’t be able to get voters to tune back in.

This is his first King’s Speech – and it’s hard at the moment to see how it won’t end up his last.

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Alabama, Minnesota lawmakers join US states pushing for Bitcoin reserves

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Alabama, Minnesota lawmakers join US states pushing for Bitcoin reserves

Alabama, Minnesota lawmakers join US states pushing for Bitcoin reserves

Lawmakers in the US states of Minnesota and Alabama filed companion bills to identical existing bills that if passed into law, would allow each state to buy Bitcoin.

The Minnesota Bitcoin Act, or HF 2946, was introduced to the state’s House by Republican Representative Bernie Perryman on April 1, following an identical bill introduced on March 17 by GOP state Senator Jeremy Miller.

Meanwhile, on the same day in Alabama, Republican state Senator Will Barfoot introduced Senate Bill 283, while a bi-partisan group of representatives led by Republican Mike Shaw filed the identical House Bill 482, which allows for the state to invest in crypto, but essentially limits it to Bitcoin (BTC).

Twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly name Bitcoin

Minnesota’s Bitcoin Act would allow the state’s investment board to invest state assets in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and permit state employees to add crypto to retirement accounts.

It would also exempt crypto gains from state income taxes and give residents the option to pay state taxes and fees with Bitcoin.

Alabama, Minnesota lawmakers join US states pushing for Bitcoin reserves

Source: Bitcoin Laws

The twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly identify Bitcoin, but would limit the state’s crypto investment into assets that have a minimum market value of $750 billion, a criterion that only Bitcoin currently meets.

26 Bitcoin reserve bills now introduced in the US

Introducing identical bills is not uncommon in the US and is typically done to speed up the bicameral legislative process so laws can pass more quickly.

Bills to create a Bitcoin reserve have been introduced in 26 US states, with Arizona currently the closest to passing a law to make one, according to data from the bill tracking website Bitcoin Laws.

Alabama, Minnesota lawmakers join US states pushing for Bitcoin reserves

Arizona currently leads in the US state Bitcoin reserve race. Source: Bitcoin Laws

Pennsylvania was one of the first US states to introduce a Bitcoin reserve bill, in November 2024. However, the initiative was reportedly eventually rejected, with similar bills also killed in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Related: North Carolina bills would add crypto to state’s retirement system 

Law, Bitcoin Regulation, United States, Policy, Bitcoin Reserve

Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wyoming are the five states thathave rejected Bitcoin reserve initiatives. Source: Bitcoin Laws

According to a March 3 report by Barron’s, “red states” like Montana have faced setbacks to the Bitcoin reserve initiatives amid political confrontations between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

Additional reporting by Helen Partz.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

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US House committee passes stablecoin-regulating STABLE Act

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US House committee passes stablecoin-regulating STABLE Act

US House committee passes stablecoin-regulating STABLE Act

Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.

The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.

The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.

The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.

US House committee passes stablecoin-regulating STABLE Act

Source: Financial Services GOP

The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.

During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.

She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments, and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”

In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.

Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress 

Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.

Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — or does it?

The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.

Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.

Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”

Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.

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‘My lawyers are ready’ for questions about corruption claims, ex-minister tells Sky News

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'My lawyers are ready' for questions about corruption claims, ex-minister tells Sky News

Tulip Siddiq has told Sky News her “lawyers are ready” to handle any formal questions about allegations she is involved in corruption in Bangladesh.

Asked whether she regrets apparent links with the Bangladeshi Awami League political party, Ms Siddiq said “why don’t you look at my legal letter and see if I have any questions to answer… [the Bangladeshi authorities] have not once contacted me and I’m waiting to hear from them”.

The London MP resigned as a Treasury minister in January after being named in several corruption inquiries in Bangladesh.

In her first public comments since leaving government, Ms Siddiq said “there’s been allegations for months on end and no one has contacted me”.

Last month, the interim leader of Bangladesh told Sky News the MP had “wealth left behind” in the country “and should be made responsible”.

Lawyers acting for Ms Siddiq wrote to the Bangladeshi Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) several weeks ago saying the allegations were “false and vexatious”.

The letter said the ACC must put questions to Ms Siddiq “by no later than 25 March 2025” or “we shall presume that there are no legitimate questions to answer”.

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Staff from the NCA visited Bangladesh as part of initial work to support the interim government in the country.

In a post online today, the former minister said the deadline had expired and the authorities had not replied.

Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi government for comment.

The allegations against Ms Siddiq are focused on links to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh for 20 years.

Ms Hasina was forced to flee the country in August following weeks of deadly protests.

She is accused of becoming an autocrat, with politically-motivated arrests, extra-judicial killings and other abuses allegedly happening on her watch. Hasina claims it’s all a political witch hunt.

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Ms Siddiq was found to have lived in several London properties that had links back to the Awami League political party that her aunt still leads.

She referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus who said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but added it was “regrettable” Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.

Ms Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.

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