People will be left in poverty due to what was not in the first King's Speech under Keir Starmer's Labour government, according to campaigners.

Plans for nationalising railways, strengthening workers' rights, a gradual ban on smoking and cracking down on people smuggler gangs were included in the King’s Speech.

Labour’s plan for government was laid out at Westminster by King Charles with 24 of the 39 bills applicable in Scotland.

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Labour said the workers rights Bill would be the first step to reducing poverty but campaigners were disappointed and said poverty was “missing” from the plans.

(Image: PA)

The speech did not include any plan to end the two-child cap on tax credits or scrap the benefits cap.

Peter Kelly, Poverty Alliance chief executive, said: “The new Government’s first Kings Speech was an opportunity for it to set out a new path on poverty.

“Many of the Bills announced today are welcomed – strengthening workers’ rights, in particular - but poverty was missing from the speech today.

“That absence will mean millions across the UK will still face the same policies and rules that have kept them in poverty under the last government – the five week wait for benefits, the benefit cap, the two-child limit.

"We have known for years about the deeply damaging impact that these policies have, now is the time to change them.”

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Andy Cook, Chief Executive of the Centre for Social Justice, said: “There was little focus on the key issues needed to address many of our divided nation’s deep-seated systemic problems and the root causes of poverty.”

Labour, however, said the plans represented the biggest transfer of power towards working people in a generation including new rights on sick pay and redundancy.

Ian Murray, Scottish Secretary, said: “A better deal for working people, with less insecurity and more money in their pockets, is the first step towards reducing poverty in Scotland and across the UK.”

Anas Sarwa, Scottish Labour leader, said: “This transformative legislative agenda will change lives for working people across the country and is just the beginning of the change that a Labour Government will deliver.

“From GB energy, headquartered right here in Scotland to bring down bills and deliver jobs, to making work pay with the New Deal for Working People, this is a programme for change that will deliver for Scotland.”

The Railways Bill will set up a new body to oversee the track and trains on the rail network across the UK.

ScotRail is already currently in public ownership but the new plan will set a body for both track and trains.

Mick Wheelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: “This is the right decision, at the right time, to take the brakes off the UK economy and rebuild Britain.

“John Major’s decision to privatise British Rail in 1994 was foolish, ideologically-driven, and doomed to fail.

"It was described even by that arch-privateer Margaret Thatcher as “a privatisation too far” and so it has proved.”

The 24 bills that apply to Scotland in full or in part.

  1. Renters Rights Bill [in respect of discrimination against tenants on benefits or with children]
  2. National Wealth Fund Bill
  3. Pensions Schemes Bill
  4. Planning and Infrastructure Bill [some measures]
  5. Employment Rights Bill
  6. Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill
  7. Railways Bill 
  8. Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill
  9. Product Safety and Metrology Bill
  10. Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill 
  11. Armed Forces Commissioner Bill 
  12. Digital Information and Smart Data Bill 
  13. Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill
  14. Great British Energy Bill
  15. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue support Mechanism) Bill 
  16. Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill [Reintroduced] 
  17. Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill 
  18. Tobacco and Vapes Bill [Reintroduced] 
  19. House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
  20. Cyber Security and Resilience Bill 
  21. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill
  22. Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill
  23. Budget Responsibility Bill
  24. Hillsborough Law [Public Candour] Bill [TBC - territorial extent to be determined]