Within two weeks of gaining power, the U.K.’s newly elected Labor government has confirmed its intention to beef up the audit regulator and strengthen corporate governance.

In Wednesday’s King’s Speech—which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the next Parliament—Prime Minister Keir Starmer added the Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill to the list of 40 bills the government hopes to pass.

Neil Hodge is a freelance business journalist and photographer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He writes on insurance and risk management, corporate governance, internal audit, compliance, and legal...