LONDON — Plotters are trying to bring down the British prime minister. The capital is rife with rumor. And the king’s bodyguards, dressed in their finery, are conducting a torchlight search for explosives in the cellars beneath Parliament.
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s defiant bid to face down a rebellion left his future in the balance Wednesday, but that wasn’t going to stop the United Kingdom playing dress-up for the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament.
Enter King Charles III.
The monarch delivered The King’s Speech — an address written by the government to set out its priorities for the coming parliamentary session.
Though the king was reading Starmer’s words, “there’s deep uncertainty as to whether Starmer will be leading the government over the next 12 months or so,” said Craig Prescott, who specializes in the constitutional and political role of the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London.
“So it’s a bit of a paradox,” he told NBC News.
More than 80 Labour lawmakers have called for Starmer to resign, dismayed by two years of errors and policy U-turns that culminated in a disastrous showing in midterms-style elections last week. Starmer has dared his mutineers to find the required numbers to challenge him or let him get on with the job.
One of his main rivals is his own Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who arrived for what was billed as a showdown with Starmer at No. 10 Downing St. early Wednesday. He left just 17 minutes later, still without declaring an open challenge to his boss.
Less than 300 yards away in Parliament, the day’s rituals were soon underway.
The state opening is part political necessity, part constitutional hangover, and part historical theater that makes the living museum of London such a global tourist magnet.
The timing of the speech is not set in stone, and its placement just after the local elections’ long-inevitable verdict on the unpopular Starmer was viewed by many observers as an effort for the government to reset.