I found myself wondering today whether Keir Starmer has started using the King as a human shield.

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Because watching the King deliver the government’s speech in Parliament, only days after what were clearly terrible election results for Labour, I could not help thinking about the timing of it all and whether Downing Street is leaning rather heavily on the stability and symbolism of the monarchy at a moment when Keir Starmer himself looks politically vulnerable.

There were already doubts around the Prime Minister before last Thursday’s elections. Since those results, those doubts have become much more deeply embedded, both inside the party and outside it.

And then, into the middle of all that political uncertainty, comes the great constitutional spectacle of the King’s Speech.

Now, constitutionally, the King’s role is very straightforward. His job is literally to read the words put in front of........

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