The One Nation Queen's Speech: Cameron mapped out plans for first Tory-only government for two decades with promise to help working people get on, buy a home and save for the future

 

 The Queen  announced the Conservative government will adopt a 'One Nation approach, as she set out planned laws for the next one year. 

Addressing peers and MPs in the Houses of Lords, the Queen is laying out a programme of tax cuts, job creation and house building.

  

 

David Cameron is promising tax cuts for 30million people as he sets out a 'Queen's Speech for working people'. The Prime Minister says he has a 'mandate from the British people' to implement his manifesto in full in the first Conservative Queen's Speech in two decades.

In an ambitious programme of laws to be passed in the next 12 months,                 Mr Cameron vows his One Nation government will offer 'a good education, a decent job, a home of your own and a secure retirement'.

But a row erupted after it emerged a Tory promise to scrap the Human Rights Act has been delayed, fearing it could be scuppered by an earlier rebellion.

The State Opening of Parliament sees the Queen travel from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in one of the great occasions of the political calendar.

It is the 62nd time during her reign that the Queen has delivered a speech setting out the laws and reforms of the government of the day.

In her speech, the Queen said: 'My government will legislate in the interests of everyone in the country, It will adopt a One Nation approach , helping working people get on, supporting aspiration, giving new opportunities to the most disadvantaged and bringing different parts of our country together.' 

 A Full Employment and Welfare Bill will commit to the target of securing full employment 'and provide more people with the security of a job'.

Ministers say it will help to create 2million extra jobs, and provide young people with the skills and experience they need to find work and not begin a life on benefits.

The benefit cap limiting the amount which can be claimed in state handouts will be lowered to £23,000, while working age benefits, tax credits and child benefit will be frozen for two years.

An extra 3million apprenticeships will be created, in part funded by a levy on firms who use foreign labour instead of hiring Brits. 

 

 

An Enterprise Bill promises to cut £10billion of red-tape for business, making it easier for small firms to secure prompt payment from customers and overhaul business rates.

The Right To Buy scheme first introduced by Margaret Thatcher will be relaunched to allow 1.3million people in housing association properties to buy their own home with a large discount.

A Housing Bill will also include 20,000 Starter Homes for young first-time buyers offered at a 20 per cent discount on their market value and promise to bring brownfield sites into use while speeding up the planning system.

On education, there is a pledge of 500 more free schools and coasting schools will be forced to turn into academies to drive up standards.

There will also be a new drive to speed up adoption, including merging adoption services to match children with prospective parents 'without delay'.

Scotland is to get major new powers promised in the run up to last year's independence referendum, making Holyrood one of the most devolved parliaments in the world.

  It includes giving Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon power on income tax and spending.

For the first time, more than half of all money spent by the Scottish government will be raised by the Scottish Parliament.

Holyrood will set income tax rates, keep the first 10 per cent of VAT raised in Scotland and have control over £2.5billion in welfare spending.

As part of a trade-off ordered by Mr Cameron, changes will also be made to ensure 'English votes for English laws'.

'These changes will create fairer procedures to ensure that decisions affecting England, or England and Wales, can be taken only with the consent of the majority of Members of Parliament representing constituencies in those parts of our United Kingdom,' the Queen said. 

 

 A High Speed Rail Bill will commit to the first phase of the super-fast line from London to the West Midlands, with the power to seize land and homes which lie on the route.

A major crackdown on immigration is promised, including a new offence of working illegally which will give police power to seize wages of people who do not have a right to work in the UK.

In an eye-catching new announcement, ministers are considering imposing a new levy on 'businesses that us foreign labour' to pay for apprenticeships for young Britons, although they would also be open to EU nationals.

A new enforcement agency will crack down on the worst cases of exploitation of workers.

It will also be made harder for illegal migrants to access services, with landlords given more powers to evict illegal tenants.

Banks will be forced to take action to close accounts held by illegal immigrants.

 

 

Home Secretary Theresa May will press ahead with plans for a new 'deport first, appeal later' principle for all immigration cases, to stop people delaying their removal from the UK.

All foreign criminals awaiting deportation will be tagged using sat-nav technology to prevent them absconding.

A Trade Unions Bill heralds the biggest changes to rules industrial action since the 1980s. It will make public sector strikes in health, education, fire and transport services illegal unless at least 40 per cent of eligible staff vote for it.

Turnout in all strike ballots will also have to be least 50 per cent to ensure that 'disruption to essential public services has a democratic mandate'.