Watch live: Prince Charles replaces Queen for UK parliament speech

Britain’s Parliament opens a new year-long session on Tuesday with a mix of royal pomp and raw politics, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to re-energize his scandal-tarnished administration and revive the economy amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Johnson’s Conservative government will set out the laws it plans to pass in the coming year at the tradition-steeped State Opening of Parliament. The ceremony will take place without 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, who has pulled out because of what Buckingham Palace calls “mobility issues.”

Instead, her son and heir, Prince Charles, will read the Queen’s Speech, which is written by the government but traditionally read out by the monarch. Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, will also attend.

The queen has only missed two previous state openings during her 70-year reign, in 1959 and 1963, when she was pregnant with sons Andrew and Edward, respectively.

The speech will contain 38 pieces of legislation, including bills on education, animal welfare and “levelling up” economic opportunity to poorer regions.

The speech will promise to cut red tape for business and overhaul regulation in the wake of Britain’s exit from the European Union. It may also contain measures to alter post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland agreed with the EU, a move that would worsen already tense relations between Britain and the bloc.