Theresa May has promised to work with "humility and resolve" as she prepares to set out her legislative programme for the next two years in a Queen's Speech expected to be dominated by Brexit.
The Times branded her administration the "stumbling husk of a zombie government" and said Ms May was now "so weak that she can not arbitrate between squabbling cabinet ministers", who are increasingly publicly divided over Brexit.
Chastened by an election result which left her Conservative Party short of a majority in Parliament, Ms.May also watered down pledges on social care reform, education, corporate governance and energy markets.
Of 27 Bills and draft bills unveiled in her first Queen's Speech, eight are devoted to the complex process of withdrawal from the EU, including a Repeal Bill to overturn the 1972 Act which took Britain into the European Economic Community and separate Bills on customs, trade, immigration, fisheries, agriculture, nuclear safeguards and the worldwide sanctions regime. "That means getting a deal which delivers the result of last years referendum and does so in a way that commands maximum public support".
Formal Brexit talks with the European Union begin Monday. The speech will be followed by several days of debate by MPs, culminating in a vote expected on June 29 which one parliamentary official confirmed is essentially a "de facto vote of confidence" in Ms May's minority government. The changes to the ceremony were pre-planned due to a lack of rehearsal time.
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In an apparent sign of recognition that she must seek a broad consensus for any Brexit deal, she said getting European Union withdrawal right will mean securing "a deal which delivers the result of last year's referendum and does so in a way that commands maximum public support".
The government has said this session of parliament will last two years - meaning there would be no Queen's Speech next year - in order to be able to pass a vast amount of Brexit-related legislation.
It also outlined plans to allow sectors such as electric vehicles and satellite technology to maintain a competitive edge, as well as promising to deliver an industrial strategy that spread prosperity across the country.
But there were nagging doubts about what the Prime Minister can achieve, even after the pared-back list, with no sign yet of a final deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionists. The party should not be taken for granted, it said.
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