Conference Diary: It’s only Day One but what a start

I can’t remember a Conference (sorry #Lab13) where so many meaty policy announcements have been trailed in the run up. We arrive in Brighton knowing that prices have risen faster than wages in 38 out of 39 months under David Cameron. Working people are on average £1500 a year worse off under this Tory led government while millionaires have been handed mega tax cuts. But it’s shaping up to be a Conference where we don’t just talk about David Cameron’s cost of living crisis but outline what an Ed Miliband Labour government would do about it. So the bedroom tax will be scrapped, we’ll axe George Osborne’s ‘shares for rights’ scheme, we will strengthen the national minimum wage, we’ll introduce guaranteed childcare for parents of primary school children through their school from 8am to 6pm. All this and not even everyone has got here yet.

It’s lovely to be back at the seaside after a few years in some of our great northern cities transformed under the last Labour government. The Tories head to Manchester next week but my analysis of membership returns from the Electoral Commission reveals the extent of the Tory problem in Britain’s northern cities. Across the whole of Manchester David Cameron’s Tories have just 236 members, across the whole of Newcastle they have just 192 members, across Sunderland (where they targeted the Sunderland Central constituency in 2010) just 137 members and Liverpool merely 60. In contrast Labour’s active membership is on the up across the country.

One of the nice parts of Conference is meeting up with people who you only seem to see here every year. I came to my first Conference in 1996, then as a steward checking passes on the door, so that’s a lot of old friends to catch up with. This year I’m attending as a member of the NEC which means I have to go to the daily 7.30 am NEC meetings. I apologise in advance to anyone who finds me not quite on my usual sparkling form…..

Last night we kicked off with the East Midlands delegates reception. Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman and Ed Balls all joined us highlighting the importance of a region that will decide the outcome of the next General Election. We’re all determined to work hard and build on the huge progress we’ve made so far in our target seats. Since we met last year we’ve seen a brilliant gain with Andy Sawford taking Corby in a parliamentary by election. We’ve made major eye catching advancements across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The Tory vote seems to be in free fall in some of our targets for example in marginal Loughborough the Tories managed to score just 20 odd votes in a recent council by election. We’ve selected brilliant candidates such as Lucy Rigby in Lincoln, Catherine Atkinson in Erewash and Leonie Mathers in Sherwood. But a special mention must go to Loughborough’s Matthew O Callaghan because as well as taking the fight to the Tories, Leicestershire’s top foodie recently managed to appear in the Great British Bake Off. How about that for publicity!

At our first NEC meeting last night Ed Miliband was given an enthusiastic reception as indeed he was from delegates at all the receptions. One man also receiving plaudits from delegates on last night’s reception circuit was our impressive Scottish Deputy Labour Leader Anas Sarwar reminding us of the importance of the referendum in Scotland next year. It seems to me that the campaign to keep Scotland in the Union is winning the argument. But we can’t be complacent and I’ve no doubt it’s another campaign One Nation Labour will go all out to win.