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A crackdown on immigration and measures to boost the economy were at the heart of the Queens Speech as the Government set out its legislative programme for the next 12 months.

Some visitors to the º£½ÇÊÓƵ will be forced to pay to use the NHS while judges will have more powers to kick foreign criminals out of the country.

With an election due in May 2015, the package of measures is the Government’s last chance to introduce major legislative change before polling day.

The focus on immigration appeared to be partly a response to the success of º£½ÇÊÓƵIP in last week’s local elections – but there was no sign of a Bill guaranteeing an in-out referendum on leaving the European Union, which David Cameron has promised to hold if the Tories win the next election.

In a break with tradition, the Queen was accompanied by the Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, highlighting proposals for the monarch, who is 87, to start slowly handing over some of her duties to her eldest son.

The Government insisted measures set out in the Queen’s speech were about “backing people who work hard and want to get on in life.”

David Cameron said: “We know that Britain can be great again because we’ve got the people to do it. Today’s Queen’s Speech shows that we will back them every step of the way.”

But Labour MPs warned the planned legislation would fail to create jobs or get young people back to work.

A Hybrid Bill will allow the Government to compulsorily purchase land needed to build the first phase of the line, running from London to Birmingham and into Staffordshire, where it will join the West Coast Main Line.

The High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill authorises funding for preparatory work for the entire network, including the second phase from Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester.

Other proposals to help the economy include the National Insurance Contributions Bill, which will give every business and charity a £2,000 employment allowance, cutting their National Insurance payments.

Downing Street also highlighted measures previously announced by the Chancellor to help employers, including further cuts in Corporation Tax bringing the rate down to 20 per cent from April 2015 and providing £3.5 billion to help people who want to buy a home but are struggling to raise a deposit.

This is expected to help the construction sector because some of the money will be reserved for people buying newly-built properties.

A new Immigration Bill will make it harder for temporary migrants to use public services – and charge them for using the NHS.

It will become easier to kick foreign criminals out of the country by allowing courts to take the seriousness of the crime committed into account. This is designed to prevent criminals fighting deportation on the grounds that it would infringe their human rights.

Private housing landlords will be expected to check whether tenants are in the country legally – and face fines if they don’t.

Employers will also face tougher penalties if they employ illegal labour and migrants from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, who currently qualify for many benefits, will be allowed to claim for only six months.

As part of what has been seen as an attempt to appeal to female voters in the run up to the next election, the Queen’s Speech also highlighted proposals to improve support for childcare. Measures include allowing schools to offer childcare services.

A tax-free childcare scheme will effectively cut the price of childcare by 20 per cent for many families, up to a maximum of £1,200 per child.

A Care Bill will place a cap on the cost of care, ensuring that nobody is forced to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for residential care.

There will also be a new inspection regime for hospitals, with ratings like those in use for schools, in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the Stafford NHS scandal.

Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) said: “This Queen’s speech will be well received in my constituency of Sutton Coldfield. We are fixing benefits so that it always pays to work, and we are cutting income tax for 24 million people – and taking two million people out of tax altogether. Immigration is already down by a third and crime is down substantially too, and all of this has been achieved while cutting one third of Labour’s deficit.”

Steve McCabe (Lab Selly Oak) said: “It is a remarkably slim set of measures. It feels very empty. When you strip out the rhetoric about immigration you are left with the question of how exactly they plan to prevent people using the NHS.

“One option would have been ID cards so that people could prove they were eligible for services, but one of the first acts of this government was to scrap ID cards.

“So the question I have is, are they going to end up bringing them back?”