Queen launches Labour's election agenda

Queen Elizabeth heading to Westminster to announce the plans

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Britain's Labour government has unveiled a programme of voter-friendly legislation sending the clearest signal yet that a general election is not far away.

Queen Elizabeth arrived at London's Westminster parliament in a gilded horse-drawn carriage to fulfil her time-honoured duty of revealing the government's plans for the following year.

Crime-fighting is the centrepiece of Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans with a raft of laws targeting criminals from teenage thugs to mobsters.

"My government is determined to combat all aspects of crime to protect all members of our society," the queen told a parliament's packed House of Lords chamber.

She listed only 15 proposed bills for the next session. Last year, she had to spell out 28 and far more than that were eventually passed.

Law and order is traditionally the preserve of Labour's Conservative opponents and is a key concern among the large group of middle-income, "middle England" voters that Blair must woo again to repeat his landslide 1997 general election win.

The assault on crime came a week after Britain was stunned by the murder of a 10-year-old Nigerian boy in a London housing estate.

May 2001 has long been pencilled in as a likely election date, even though Blair could wait a year longer.

Rumours are now swirling that he could even go to the country in April.

Latest opinion polls put Labour 10 to 15 points ahead of the Conservative opposition.

The government currently holds a 177-seat majority, the largest in 150 years.

The core of the new laws, a Criminal Justice and Police Bill, will give police tougher powers to tackle public disorder.

They will be given authority to set curfews for 16-year-olds to keep them off the streets at night.

Other measures targeting "yob culture" include a range of penalty fines for offences, particularly drink-related ones.

Other key electoral areas, particularly health and education also featured prominently.

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