GORDON BROWN will try to prove Labour has not run out of steam in today’s pre-election Queen’s Speech, offering new “guarantees” on schools and hospitals – and a fresh attack on bankers.

A slimmed-down legislative programme will also get tough with the parents of nuisance children, help poorer households pay heating bills and levy a tax to pay for super-fast broadband connections.

However, with just 70 sitting days to the likely May General Election, many of the expected 15 Bills will fail to reach the statute book unless they enjoy Tory support.

The lack of time prompted Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to call for the traditional curtain-raiser for the new Parliamentary year to be scrapped altogether.

Nevertheless, the Queen’s Speech will allow the Prime Minister to set out what a fourth Labour term would offer, with pledges of:

An Education Bill – setting out guarantees including personal tuition for pupils who fall behind, as well as stronger powers to axe failing schools;

A Health Bill – giving legal right to NHS patients to be treated within 18 weeks;

A Financial Services Bill – allowing bankers’ contracts to be ripped up if they promise bonuses that reward excessive risk-taking;

A Social Care Bill – providing free care in their own homes, from next year, for 350,000 pensioners in most critical need;

An Energy Bill – replacing voluntary cut-price schemes;

A Policing Bill – forcing parents to take more responsibility for a child’s anti-social behaviour.

The package has been described as the most “deliberately political” of Labour’s 12 years in power, effectively firing the starting gun for an election.

ROB MERRICK: PAGE 13