Even his fiercest critics would struggle to argue that Andy Burnham’s first conference as Labour party leader was anything but a success. There was the requisite rapture among the Labour faithful after his deeply-personal speech, delivered without a tie or a lectern and, at times, with tears in his eyes. But even figures on the right, such as the broadcaster Piers Morgan, described it as “one of the best, and most powerfully delivered, by a British politician in a very long time”.
The prime minister’s policy offering packed a punch too. He put forward radical progressive policies on social care, promising to “rip the plaster off” and make changes to the pensions triple lock, electoral reform and Europe. A YouGov poll after the conference showed that it had boosted the “Burnham bounce”, with Labour opening up a five-point lead over Reform UK in the polls.
The upcoming budget, and next year’s spending review, will sorely test whether he can keep that momentum going and make good on his promises. Burnham’s success at the Labour conference was capped by a victory at the Holborn and St Pancras byelection a few days later seeing off a challenge by the leader of the Green party Zack Polanski. This time last year, Kemi Badenoch was hanging on to her role as leader of the opposition by a thread.
But in the past 12 months her personal favourability ratings have continued to improve, according to More in Common research. This was a conference where she tightened her grip over the Conservative party and leaned hard into her own brand, telling GB News’s Christopher Hope: “We are under new management. There’s a new captain, there’s a new coach, there’s a new owner, effectively, which is all me.” While Badenoch’s speech lacked the emotional firepower of Burnham’s, she was assured and disciplined in her focus on the economy – not mentioning small boats or other elements of the culture wars which have energised her in the past.
Promised giveaways to wealthy individuals, such as free childcare for those earning more than £100,000 and abolishing inheritance tax on family homes for the 5% of households that pay it, were designed to appeal to the Conservative’s traditional base, one of the first indications of a resolve to win back the “blue wall”. The most powerful moment of the speech came as she drew a line in the sand between the Tories and Reform, thunderously telling her audience there would be no uniting the right: “I don’t want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists, call veterans traitors and debate whether my mixed-race children are English.” Whether she will reject any deal with Reform if the electoral circumstances dictate remains to be seen. Both the Conservative and Labour communications teams can congratulate themselves on a job vigorously done in the past few weeks.
The coup of the conference season came in the guise of a 27-metre (88ft) graphical retelling of the past two years in British politics in the style of the Bayeux tapestry, as seen through Conservative eyes. Senior party figures and members alike enjoyed the “Birmingham tapestry”, for its pointed jabs at defector Robert Jenrick, but the canniest move was including depictions of high-profile journalists, most of whom duly posted images of the propaganda to their sizeable social media followings. The team at the Labour party conference successfully projected the “hopey-changey” vibes they had intended, mainly by producing as many posters and placards declaring there was “hope again” as there were participants at the conference.
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