Boris Johnson's pledge to raise spending on the NHS by almost £34bn by 2023-24 will be enshrined into law on Thursday.

The prime minister is expected to use the first Queen's Speech of the new parliament to underline commitments made during his victorious general election campaign to support the health service.

The Conservatives said it would be the first time any government has made a legally binding spending commitment over several years.

Meanwhile, the prime minister's chief adviser Dominic Cummings is reportedly preparing a radical overhaul of the Civil Service.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Cummings will review the way officials are hired, while The Sunday Times claims some departments could be abolished and civil servants replaced by outside experts.


While the Queen's Speech will be largely the same as that delivered in October before parliament was dissolved for the election, it is expected to include a number of additional measures.

They include changes to the justice system after Mr Johnson promised serious offenders would not be released early following the London Bridge terror attack.

There are also expected to be measures to ensure minimum services operate during transport strikes, new protections for renters and a ban on local authorities boycotting products from other countries, like Israel.

Image: Dominic Cummings is preparing a radical overhaul of the Civil Service

It comes after Mr Johnson used a highly symbolic visit on Saturday to Tony Blair's old Sedgefield constituency to promise to repay the trust of traditional Labour voters who turned for the first time to the Conservatives in the election.

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The County Durham seat was part of a previously solid "red wall" of safe Labour seats across the North, the Midlands and north Wales which turned blue on Thursday night.

In his speech on Saturday, Mr Johnson said: "Our job is to serve the people of this country, and to deliver on our priorities. And our priorities and their priorities are the same."