Rishi Sunak wants voters to see the Conservatives as taking difficult, ambitious choices, including on net zero and transport. He told MPs: ‘This King’s Speech is about what this government is about, taking long-term decisions to build a brighter future for our country. It builds on foundations that are far stronger than they were just a year ago.’ He said that the impact for the British people would be ‘more jobs, more investment, and higher growth, more police on the streets with stronger powers to keep us safe, places people are proud to call home, a country strong at home, confident abroad and with a better future ahead for all our people.’

But his main efforts were spent attacking Labour for changing its policies repeatedly, for having a shadow chancellor who copied and pasted some passages in her book, and for having policies that would let Britain down, including abandoning freeports and allowing 100,000 EU migrants into the UK every year. He also reminded the chamber that Starmer tried to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister, something we are going to hear a lot when the election campaign properly started because the Tories think that this still has potency with voters. He said Starmer’s speech did strike a few ‘consistent notes’: ‘higher inflation, more strikes, more immigration and higher borrowing’.

It was almost as if Sunak was speaking from the position of leader of the opposition to the Labour party, rather than in government. The job was rather easier for Starmer himself, given he is the leader of the opposition, and given there was a lot missing from today’s speech. He characterised thesSpeech as ‘a plan for more of the same, more sticking plasters, more division, more party-first, country-second gimmicks’ and an ‘exercise in economic miserabilism’ that showed the government had ‘no faith in Britain’s ability to avert decline’.

Starmer wasn’t the only critic: Theresa May got to her feet pretty swiftly once the backbench speeches had begun, and she told the chamber there were three things missing from the speech: the failure to include a bill reforming the Mental Health Act (something she promised in 2017 and didn’t fulfil, something Boris Johnson promised in 2019 and didn’t come up with goods on either, and something that had been mooted for this final speech too), measures tackling modern slavery, and the transition to net zero.

The King’s Speech marks the start of term for MPs, hence the jovial and slightly odd loyal address speeches from Sir Robert Goodwill and Siobhan Baillie before the leaders spoke. We don’t know how long that term will be, but we do know from today that it won’t be one dominated by big reforming legislation – more the Conservatives trying to sow as much doubt in voters’ minds as possible about the wisdom of turning to the Labour party.