Labour MPs Say There Is A "Strange" Mood At Conference Despite Historic Election Victory
3 min read
The mood at last year's Labour conference was one of giddy euphoria as the party had an elusive election victory in its sights. But despite finally returning to power in July, the atmosphere in Liverpool this time around is described as subdued.
One Labour MP told PoliticsHome there was a "strange" and "tense" feeling in the air on Liverpool's dockside where the party is holding its first conference since winning the election.
On 4 July, Keir Starmer led his party to one of the most remarkable victories in UK political history, returning to the House of Commons with a 167-seat majority. The party's wait to defeat the Conservatives at a General Election was finally over after nearly twenty years.
A celebratory conference two months later surely awaited.
But ministers and MPs in Liverpool say that hasn't quite been the mood in Merseyside.
“There’s an element of real world about this conference,” one minister told PoliticsHome.
They added that near constant rain in Liverpool, which resulted in one of the conference lounges being flooded, has done nothing to lift spirits, and that the party is feeling fatigued after a relentless few months starting with the six-week General Election campaign at the end of May.
“One is the weather is shit and two is everyone is knackered," they said.
A Labour MP elected for the first time in July agreed that people are “exhausted”. They added it did not help that many new MPs were still preoccupied with looking for staff to fill their offices, or trying to find accommodation to stay in while working in Westminster.
Other attendees feel that the heavy corporate presence at Labour conference, coupled with a fall in the number of signed-up party members, has taken some of the energy out of the affair.
It was noted that a number of former Conservative MPs and erstwhile Tory government advisers, who have joined the corporate world since the last election, were among those in Liverpool trying to catch the attention of cabinet ministers.
One former Labour employee-turned lobbyist said it didn’t feel like a normal Labour conference. “There are too many people like me, and not enough actual members!” they told PoliticsHome.
There is also a feeling that the stark reality of just how difficult governing actually is — especially for a party that hasn't done it in 14 years — has created a more serious atmosphere at this conference compared with last year's event.
Not only does the Starmer administration have a huge in-tray of difficult issues to deal with, but went into the conference under a cloud of awkward stories about donations to the Prime Minister and other senior Cabinet ministers, as well as worsening poll ratings.
Not every Labour MP agreed, however. Minister Chris Bryant rejected the idea that the atmosphere was flat during an appearance on PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown on Monday night in Liverpool.
The senior Labour MP, who said his first conference was in 1991, said he had “been through many conferences where they've been real rows”, such as when the then-leader John Smith attempted to change the voting rules to one-member, one-vote.
“I do feel, in that sense, a bit of a veteran, and there's a bit of me that really loves the fact that the Labour Party is always impatient for change, that’s the whole point of the Labour Party is to be impatient for change,” he added.
“And the honest difficulty is that the financial situation of the country isn't great, hardly anything in the country seems to work, lots of the infrastructure is to pot, and there's an awful lot to put right and the truth is, we are going to have to learn a degree of patience.”
Additional reporting from Zoe Crowther and Adam Payne.
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