Blair Cabinet Holds First Meeting
The Labour Cabinet has met for the first time and agreed the contents of next week's Queen's Speech.
It was a relaxed meeting, with Tony Blair breaking with tradition and decreeing that his team will address each other by their first names, rather than their titles.
In that new atmosphere of informality, the first Labour cabinet meeting since May 1979 concentrated on ordering the priorities for government.
More than 20 Bills for a packed 18-month programme were agreed by ministers, with education at the top of the list.
Two main Bills will be devoted to improving education, including abolishing the assisted places scheme and nursery vouchers.
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Informal atmosphere
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The assisted places scheme subsidises a private education for some children, but Labour wants to phase it out and use the money to spend on reducing class sizes for five, six and seven-year-olds in state schools.
Speaking in Downing Street afterwards, the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, said he was "very proud" of the
legislative package.
"It reflects all those priorities that we had in the general election - that of education, crime and jobs, decentralisation and devolution," he told reporters.
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John Prescott: proud of programme
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Mr Prescott added: "I am looking forward to implementing that programme and showing that a different government can make a difference. And that is what our Queen's Speech will reflect."
He also confirmed there would be a White Paper on a Freedom of Information Act trailed in the Queen's Speech.
The Cabinet also discussed a Bill to allow referenda this autumn on setting up a Scottish Parliament and Welsh assembly.
The Chancellor's "welfare-to-work" Budget in July, aimed at getting the unemployed off benefit and into jobs or training, was also dicussed.
Other measures will include introducing a national minimum wage, ending the internal market in the National Health Service, fast-track punishment for persistent young offenders, and greater independence for the Bank of England.
The Government is also set to ask Lord Nolan's Committee on Standards in Public Life to investigate funding of political parties.
Labour wants all donations of more than £5,000 to be made public and it wants to see a halt to large donations from overseas.
Blair's new team.
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