King’s Speech will announce tougher sentences for sex offenders

Charles read the Queen’s Speech on his mother’s behalf last year (Picture: Alastair Grant/POOL/AFP)

Murderers who kill with sexual or sadistic content will be handed life sentences, under plans being set out by the King’s Speech later today.

The speech, which announces the government’s plan for the next few months, will be read by King Charles during the state opening of parliament.

The Tory’s ‘tough on crime’ stance continues throughout the speech as it will also announce measures to force criminals to appear in court for sentencing, and a law to stop prisoners from marrying.

This is Charles’s first time delivering the speech as monarch – though he previously delivered the Queen’s Speech on his mother’s behalf at the last state opening of parliament in May last year.

It’s also Rishi Sunak’s first King’s Speech as prime minister.

In comments released before the speech, Mr Sunak said: ‘I want everyone across the country to have the pride and peace of mind that comes with knowing your community, where you are raising your family and taking your children to school, is safe.

‘That is my vision of what a better Britain looks like.

‘In the most despicable cases, these evil criminals must never be free on our streets again. Life needs to mean life.’

This year will be Charles’s first year reading the King’s Speech as the monarch (Picture: Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Labour’s shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said the Conservatives were ‘using the most significant event in the parliamentary calendar to simply repackage ideas they’ve announced multiple times’.

She added: ‘There’s no use posturing on law and order when the criminal justice system is crumbling under the government’s feet after 13 years of mismanagement.’

Three crime bills for England and Wales will be announced in the speech: the Sentencing Bill, Criminal Justice Bill, and Prisoners Bill.

The Sentencing Bill would give murderers whose killings involved a sexual or sadistic element a whole-life order – meaning they would never be released unless there are exceptional compassionate grounds.

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The Criminal Justice Bill would bring in tougher sentences for grooming gang members and those who kill their partner at the end of a relationship.

It would make clear in law that ‘reasonable force can be used to make criminals appear in the dock’, and offenders who still refused would be given an extra two years in prison.

The announcement comes after some of Britain’s most despised killers – Lucy Letby, Jordan McSweeney, and Thomas Cashman – refused to attend their sentencing.

The bill would also allow police to enter a building without a warrant to retrieve stolen goods if they have reasonable proof the item is inside – for example, a stolen mobile phone broadcasting its location.

The Prisoners Bill would stop the worst offenders from getting parole or marrying in prison, the government says.

Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic is expected to demonstrate outside parliament ahead of the King’s Speech – their first major action since a number of its members were arrested on the day of Charles’s coronation in May.

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