When I arrived at Labour Party conference late on Saturday night there was chaos at the taxi rank at Liverpool station. Huge queues and no discernible system. “Thought Labour were going to clear the backlog,” I muttered grumpily to the person next to me.
However, that was pretty much the last glimpse of any disorder to be seen because to say the conference management was a tight ship is an understatement. In four years, it’s gone from a human jumble sale to a well-oiled political machine.
In fact, in all my near 20 years coming to Labour Party conference as a political adviser in government, then opposition and now as a journalist, I have never seen a more positive, upbeat, disciplined, highly-organised operation. Apart from the glitter bomb, but we’ll come to that.
Everywhere you went from the main conference hall to the fringe meetings to the late night parties – every staffer, adviser, MP, councillor, Lord and parliamentary candidate was bang on message.
Such is the rigour of party management, no one is allowed to call their own mum without clearance from a young, strict adviser let alone blab to a journalist after a few warm proseccos.
So nervous were some wannabe MPs, that they did the whole conference without touching a drop. One former die-hard party animal told me “No way am I risking making a f**k up and facing the wrath of Morgan”, Starmer’s all powerful senior political Svengali, Morgan McSweeney. Some may say that’s over the top, but this gives you a sense of the hunger there is to win at every level of the party and the fear of messing it up.
Everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet and that included union and business leaders. It was striking how many lobbyists, businesses and suits were there from the city and the fact that the brothers and sisters from the trade union movement were totally okay with that.
I asked many a general secretary if they were uncomfortable with the bosses being here in full force and even they were pitch perfect: our members and our economy needs thriving businesses but they need committed happy workers.
Even many businesses leaders told me that, given that labour shortages and staff retention were one of their biggest issues, they wanted to have good relations with their workers and trade unions. But why all this weird political kumbaya?
Because pretty much every part of society is fed-up with the state of the country and wants a change of government as soon as possible – from your city slicker to your gnarly union bruiser (although in reality, the city boys are much “woker” these days and this generation of union leader are more pragmatic).
Add to that the turnout from civic society and there was this overwhelming sense of unity and purpose from pretty much every attendee at conference. And everyone is prepared to toe the line to get Sir Keir Starmer over the line.
People accept that they may not get everything they want right now, but they will compromise to get the Tories out. Things may change if Labour wins and people may start making impossible demands, but that’s tomorrow’s problem.
That shared ambition is also reflected in the vast amounts of money flowing into Labour’s coffers from extremely wealthy individuals, many of them former industrialists and entrepreneurs. I met a few and asked them why? What was in it for them? A peerage or policy strings?
They all said they were so rich, they had everything they needed, but they wanted a change. Again, very on message. But on a serious note, all this money and support means Labour is getting properly tooled up for this general election.
The organisation, stakeholder support and money is all in good order. But what about the raw politics? Starmer’s freshly reshuffled Shadow Cabinet are talented, ambitious, hardworking and smart. Leading the charge was Rachel Reeves who had a belter of a conference. She has brought business back to Labour and she is a powerful player at the top of the party.
Her barnstormer of a speech made me feel she was the political love child of Gordon Brown and Margaret Thatcher – the first female Iron Chancellor. Her weighty speech which was rich in economics and big politics was in stark contrast to Jeremy Hunt’s 15-minute affair last week.
She is selling herself as custodian of the public purse. Perhaps one of the biggest “cut-through” policy moments of conference was her menacing promise to get back all the money from corrupt Covid contracts. It was clear that no one is spending a penny without her say so.
The Shadow Cabinet rose to their feet to applaud her but looked petrified as they did so. Everyone is thrilled but terrified of Reeves in equal measures. She’s so subliminally powerful I only realised I was wearing the same blue trouser suit she wore on the day of her speech when we got into the same lift. “Nice suit,” she remarked. If glitter boy had tried it on when she was on stage, he would have probably ended up in hospital.
There is no doubt that the security lapse and that protester dominated coverage of Starmer’s big speech. But the glitter incident gave him an opportunity to shine. He reacted and recovered well.
One aide quipped “We prepared for every protest group – from situation in the Middle East to Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. Nowhere on my risk register was some form of PR. I guess the good thing is that after all this, there’s no way Keir’s ever going to do it…”
Starmer’s speech recovered and the hall absolutely loved it. While there were no big policy rabbits in the hat, there was a narrative around rebuilding Britain and a very clear message that he was very different from the many Tory prime ministers who went before him.
This a working-class man who understood the indignity of what it was like to be ignored or held back but who had worked hard and risen up. His use of the word “service” was a signal of his hinterland – a commitment to working for the public good as former Director of Public Prosecutions. An offer to the public that he and his team would work for them not themselves.
The horrific events in Israel were also a big test for him to define himself against Jeremy Corbyn and show the world that the party really was under new management, which he passed. But there was also a recognition that no matter how much the party faithful loved his speech, because of the enormity of these events, the public would hear very little about the content.
His confidence has grown and the suits have got better. And that often tricky end of speech moment with the spouse could not have gone better.
His wife Lady Victoria is no doubt a huge asset. They look great together and clearly quite like each other, which helps. While mercifully she didn’t introduce him, her presence was important. People want to see their potential future leaders in a human context and their partners are part of that story whether you like it or not. Her appearance was subtle but choreographed. She wore a Labour red dress which was specially loaned to her by London based, Canadian-British designer Edeline Lee. They have “regular people” level of appeal. As someone remarked “They just look like a really nice, normal couple. If they lived on your street, you would want to know them.” Someone else (a bloke obviously) had a rather more basic take “he’s well punching”. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.
If you’re keen on Labour, you loved it all. If you’re a don’t-know, Starmer and the party still have to persuade you why you should pick them and spell that out clearly. There is still a long way to go on detailed policy, although I wouldn’t hold your breath. I suspect the Tories will go long with the next election. They feel their polling numbers may go up if the economy recovers even slightly and that Labour’s will fall once the scrutiny of a general election is upon them. And no prime minister ever wants to leave Downing Street. I think we are looking at an election even as late as December 2024. Much can happen in that time including the two by-elections coming up soon.
But there is no doubt that the feeling of confidence and momentum is with Labour. You could feel it crackle in the air. “Things Can Only Get Better” blared out at every reception on the last night.
As tired, hungover senior advisers and politicians checked out of the conference hotel, there was a sense of accomplishment. They wanted to look like a government in waiting but they may have even exceeded expectations. A veteran political watcher remarked “this lot look more like the actual government than the cult who gathered in Manchester last week.”
