Saturday Conference diary: downing pints and raising points in the sweaty Pullman

Change begins

Labour’s clans gathered on Saturday for the start of Labour party conference. The glossy brochure may say conference starts on Sunday, but those in the know are there the day before. Wes Streeting loves conference so much he was there on Friday. The slogan is ‘Change Begins’, plastered across the conference site.

The security is noticeably tighter now Labour is in government. There are snipers on the roofs and security details for the Prime Minister. One year in Blackpool there was a naval frigate off the coast to prevent an assault on conference from the Irish Sea. I didn’t see any gunboats on the Mersey, just the famous ferry to Birkenhead.

Journalists are looking for splits and spats, but the mood is resolute and united. Liverpool played Bournemouth yesterday, and a few of the Labour Reds such as Morgan McSweeney were at Anfield. Liverpool’s three-nil win must be a good omen, unless you are one of the two new Labour MPs for Bournemouth.

Highway to hell

‘Conference services’ is the new name for ‘late accreditation’ where lost souls swarm in search of a conference pass. In the past, it has been like a circle of hell but yesterday it took about ten seconds to retrieve a pass from a helpful and friendly member of party staff.

One former senior staffer to Keir Starmer told me the best thing about late accreditation was always the networking opportunities, but when I was in that big white marquee in the car park, the only opportunity was to pick up my pass. The networking would have to wait.

Follow all of the news and debate at party conference 2024 by LabourList here, the leading dedicated platform for Labour supporters on all things Labour:

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Farewell Abena, hello Thangham

The main business of Saturday is women’s conference, which I am told went off well. At the Labour Women’s Network (LWN) reception the outgoing chair Abena Oppong-Asare MP handed over the reins to Thangam Debbonaire after five years. Abena pointed out that many of the very many new Labour MPs are alumna of the LWN training programme, including the Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister. The LWN stand has a great range of feminist badges, including ‘Labour for Kamala  – Smash the Ceiling’,  which was going like hot cakes.

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No more beer and sandwiches

Saturday night is all about regional receptions. That’s where the real networking kicks off. The party has had the perspicacity to place each of the party’s regional receptions in adjacent rooms, so you hear people talking about ‘popping into the South East, showing a face at the South West, and ending up in London’. The beer and food ran out, but the bonhomie didn’t. Campaigners who had not seen each other since those heady days in June and July hugged and kissed like long-lost siblings.

Last night Keir Starmer, David Evans, Liz Kendall, Jonathan Reynolds, and both Ellie and Rachel Reeves were on the circuit, making the same speech to each roomful of regional delegates. They rocked up, were introduced by some anxious newbie MP, had to remember which region they were talking to, and were dragged out by their special advisers to the next one. In one, a nervous staffer dropped a glass while the Prime Minister was mid-speech, with the resulting loud smash sparking a moment of drama with his armed escort.  

David Evans, on his valedictory tour, had some good jokes about the abusive emails he had received as general secretary, reading out the most vile, rude and offensive. ‘And that’s just from the NEC,’ he said. Starmer’s joke was about glitter. This year, unlike last, to shower the leader with glitter is a treasonable offence leading to being locked up, if only there were enough prison places. You had to be there, I guess. ‘We’ve achieved more in 14 weeks than the Tories managed in 14 years’ he told us, to cheers.

The pull of the Pullman

At every annual conference there is a ‘conference hotel’ where the NEC and senior politicians are staying, and the bar is open until the small hours. In Liverpool it is the Pullman, next to the ACC, and it filled quickly as the receptions emptied. The stars of the Labour government mingled with us mortals, drinking pints and doing selfies, like normal people. There is something marvellously democratic about the Prime Minister hanging out with delegates and agreeing to endless photos and chats with party members.

A word of gratitude to the heroic bar staff working in the crowded, overheated, sweaty Pullman bar, forced to overhear endless, bewildering conversations about electoral reform, composite four, the great result in the Isle of Wight, and the new SPADs at DSIT. I sincerely hope they are on double time.  

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