Good morning. It’s the 2nd full day of Labour Party conference here in Liverpool, and the proceedings will be focused around growth and the economy. The big event of the day will be Rachel Reeves’ speech. The Shadow Chancellor is expected to focus on the theme of security. She’ll argue that there is “no hope without security”, and tell the hall: “The choice at the election is this: Five more years of the Tory chaos and uncertainty, which has left working people worse off or a changed Labour Party ready to strengthen Britain’s foundations.” Reeves is also reportedly set to announce a new Covid corruption commissioner to recoup money lost to wasteful practices, bad contracts and fraud during the pandemic. Tom has a full preview here.
As ever, my colleague Katie will be keeping on top of the action on conference floor, and will be reading through the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) report this morning so you don’t have to. You can find her report on this morning’s CAC document here, and follow us on our site and on social media throughout the day for her reporting on all the action in the hall. Yesterday’s CAC report… report? is here.
Our editor Tom also has a running tracker on all the policies announced at conference – keep an eye on what’s been pledged so far here.
If you’re at conference, we want to hear from you – tips, advice, gossip, spicy fringes, weird fringes, good politician jokes, bad politician jokes, bad accommodation, misjudged merch, overheard lines, shadow cabinet members committing animal abuse, someone looking at you funny, you name it – get in touch by replying to this email or hitting us up on social media.
Rule change
One of the more controversial bits of procedure going into this conference has been proposed changes to party rules which would remove the obligation for CLPs to have equalities officers on their executives. This was the subject of a protest yesterday in front of the ACC – you can read my report on that here – and the proposals came in for some tough criticism from NEC member Mish Rahman, who termed them an attack on “members’ rights” and “member democracy”. These changes, we now know, have passed conference (they were approved by the NEC in September) and will become policy. Katie has a full write-up here.
Priorities ballot
The priorities ballot wrapped up yesterday. My colleague Katie has the full story here, but the 12 topics chosen for discussion were (here we go): Ethics and integrity in politics, An NHS fit for the future, Energy, Ukraine,
New membership card
The party has revealed new-look membership cards. As a mass-mail to all members from general secretary David Evans says, “for the first time alongside this, our card bears our pledge to all voters: That Labour will always put the country first”. Instead of the plain red background of the old cards, the new ones have flags on them: for Scottish and Welsh members, a Saltire and Welsh dragon respectively, and for English members, a union flag. That it is a union flag and not a St George’s Cross is of concern to some: former Labour cabinet minister (and, more importantly, LabourList columnist) John Denham termed the decision an “unnecessary snub to voters who are proud of their English identity”, adding: “How credible are or promises to devolve power in England when our branding screams that Labour does not believe England exists, or that there is any difference between England, Britain and the United Kingdom?”
Are we planning to fail?
Conference Confidential
FAMILY AFFAIR: A Labour Women’s Network event yesterday afternoon provided insight into the backgrounds of a number Labour figures. Shadow Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds revealed that her dad had voted for all the major parties, except the SNP, while our prospective parliamentary candidate for Midlothian Kirsty McNeill told the audience that all of her family are SNP activists: “My earliest memories are of being sat under the table at SNP meetings folding leaflets.”
(KIND OF) HIS FIRST RODEO: It’s the first time Dr Colm Murphy, deputy director of the Mile End Institute and a historian of the Labour Party, has ever been to Labour conference- in person.”I know conference intimately in some ways, having read every proceedings transcript between 1970 and 1995 in the LSE Library for research reasons. But it’s my first time here! The biggest difference with physical attendance, so far anyway, is the amount I’m drinking.”
MERCH: Trade union merch is something I pay close attention to, and I can report, after scoping the exhibition stalls yesterday, that once again the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) is bucket-hatted-head and shoulders above the rest. Call by their stall for some union socks, or a union wash bag (I picked up one of these at TUC Congress, and it is doing me sterling duty). Other merch of slightly more political interest includes some nifty badges being handed out by the National Education Union (NEU) which back “Free school meals for all”, a policy the union is pushing for Labour to adopt as part of its national platform.
SOCIAL SCENE: Conference is about policy and compositing, but it’s also about drinking room temperature wine and eating much-touched mixed nuts from small bowls at receptions. Last night I headed over to the IPPR’s reception to booze amongst the Toozers and watched Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy give an admirably intense speech. He had a lot more energy than I did by that stage in the evening.
Tom Belger’s Liverpool recommendations
On LabourList…
ALICE PERRY: The former NEC member has a guide to conference.
VAWG: Andea Simon, director of End Violence Against Women (EVAW) has written for us about the political action needed to tackle this scourge.
HS2: Darren Caplan and Susan Evans argue Labour should maintain a commitment to the high speed line (Sponsored).
STEPHEN MORGAN: At a LabourList fringe the shadow rail minister joked that Rachel Reeves would “throw me in the Mersey for an unfunded spending commitment”.
EDUCATION: Labour was urged to put health and wellbeing “at the core of its schools policy” at a LabourList fringe yesterday.
In brief…
BEST PARTY: It’s tonight! LabourList karaoke! From 8:30pm at Bierkeller! With Thangam Debbonaire, the LabourList team (I won’t be singing. I was made to mime in the school musical. I will be there though), and many more!
MILIBAND: The Shadow Net Zero Secretary is to announce an “Energy Independence Act” in his speech later today (Mirror).
BREGRET: The think-tank UK in a Changing Europe has a new report out today in partnership with Public First on “Brexit regret”, which they are calling “Bregret”, because we don’t have enough portmanteaus to go around already. They’ve done some polling which found only 30% of respondents think Brexit will turn out well.
WATER INDUSTRY: Labour will give the water regulator Ofwat the powers to ban bonuses to water bosses found to have pumped significant levels of raw sewage into our waterways.
VAPEN’T: Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said Labour will “come down like a tone of bricks” on the vape industry (Guardian).
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