This King’s Speech will live long in the memory: not for its contents, but for its context. The long-planned state opening of Parliament today was intended to be a fireguard for the Prime Minister after the battering of last week’s local elections. Yet even constitutional screens can only do so much in the face of a forest fire engulfing No. 10.

With nearly 100 Labour MPs demanding Keir Starmer resign, today’s events have been overshadowed by the machinations of Wes Streeting. Ahead of the speech, the Health Secretary met Starmer for a 15-minute meeting chat, with confirmation breaking during the speech that he........

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