The atmosphere at this year’s Labour Party Conference was not as buoyant as previous years, with a general feeling among attendees that there was another party going on, elsewhere. And indeed there was, with Momentum holding a rally on the other side of Liverpool. By all accounts the rally was fruitful, with none of the militant antics that had been predicted taking place, but it left the conference feeling, at best, a little lacklustre.
It also contributed to a lingering feeing of disunity in the Party, despite everyone’s best efforts. Tom Watson’s speech called on the Party to “stand together, as one Labour movement, millions-strong and utterly united.” And Jeremy Corbyn echoed this call in his Leader’s speech. It was a shame then that John McDonnell was overheard in the Pullman Hotel bar saying all that is required now is “to get rid of the Blairites,” but hopefully that won’t dissuade any of his colleagues from re-joining the Shadow Cabinet. Over the next few weeks the industry will be watching closely as we see who returns. Jonny Reynolds has already been tipped to return and rumours were circulating around former Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey, who spoke at Connect’s popular Housing Fringe.
It will also be interesting to see how the new Shadow Cabinet looks in terms of equality. Connect organised the packed Women and Work APPG fringe event that tackled the issue of equality in the party head on. Former NEC youth rep Bex Bailey argued that there needs to be a cultural shift to encourage more women to become involved in politics and to stand as councillors in their local area. She acknowledged that sexism and sexual harassment exists in Labour but reinforced that it was still the party of equality. Fellow panellists Jess Phillips and Angela Rayner agreed and said that there needed to be “more gobby women in politics”.
The devolution revolution was in full swing, with Mayoral candidates Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham speaking at a number of fringes, and Sadiq Khan touted as one of the hot ticket speakers of the Conference. Labour’s power base is shifting and focus on the Mayoral elections and local control will help the party to ensure that it remains relevant while it reforms, restructures and remerges.
This year’s Labour Party Conference was my first and over the next few weeks, I will be watching with great interest to see whether there will be deselections and splits or whether the Party can rally and reform.