King’s Speech

Lord Alli Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alli (Lab)]

My Lords, to govern is to choose, and I commend the Government on their choices in the areas covered today: in education, their choice to start change with early years; in culture, their choice to put arts back on the curriculum; in technology, their choice to harness the power of the digital age to change and improve access to public services; and, in energy, their choice to invest in the transition to green power. So I welcome the education for all Bill, the digital access to services Bill and the energy independence Bill.

However, I will focus my contribution on culture. In a world where truth is made to look like lies and lies to look like truth, both social media and the BBC become vital. I wait with huge interest for the Government’s response to the consultation on social media, and I support the Government’s steadfast commitment to the BBC. Why are these two issues so important to me? I know, like many noble Lords, that the most important thing is truth, which is the cornerstone of any strong democracy. I believe it has to be safeguarded, protected and fought for.

The BBC is one of our country’s greatest assets in that fight, and I welcome my right honourable friend the Secretary of State’s commitment to ending the cycle of charter renewal. But I also believe that the BBC needs the resources to invest in local, national and international journalism, because that is the front line of the fight for truth. I also believe that tech and social media companies should be under the same obligations of truth. That means less talk and more doing when it comes to the protection of children from harmful content.

When the Government bring forward their recommendations after the consultation closes, they should put themselves on the side of parents as they struggle with this new media age. They should introduce a ban on mobile phones in school, they should strengthen the enforcement of age restriction, they should remove anonymity from social media users and they should work with other countries to turn tech and social media platforms into publishers, responsible for the content that they produce. I also believe that the Government should bring in the long-overdue independent press regulator. That is what a fight for truth looks like.

This King’s Speech is a choice. It is a choice to govern from the centre ground. It is a choice not to govern from the extreme left or the extreme right. It is a choice to spend more on public services, because we have seen the chaos and harm of not doing so. This is a King’s Speech that I believe makes the right choices to further strengthen our economic security, our energy independence and our national security. But there are also cultural choices, and we will see those unfold over this Session. I remain hopeful that the choices will be rooted in the values of my party and my country, but also the battle for truth.

Before I sit down, I too will congratulate the noble Lords, Lord Hobby and Lord Blackwater, and the noble Baroness, Lady Leaman, on their maiden speeches, and I look forward to that of the noble Lord, Lord Dixon of Jericho, in a few moments.