Burnham’s wrong turn: Andy Burnham’s arrival at conference was greeted with a huge crowd of well-wishers egging him on to stand against Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party. Unfortunately for him, they were all journalists, broadcasters, and photographers. He arrived to talk at a fringe meeting on proportional representation and went into the wrong room. He mounted the escalator at the ACC and strode out to the left. Then he veered to the right. Then he found the room filled with people who agreed with him. The joke doing the rounds in the bars last night was ‘A Blairite, Corbynite, and Starmerite walk into the Pullman bar. The barman says ‘Hello Andy’.
Modernisers assemble: At the Labour to Win rally, Jackie Baillie MSP was in no mood for jokes: ‘I say to the ‘King of the North’ – Manchester needs you! Stop this nonsense.’ Her sentiment was echoed by the other speakers. The Cabinet ministers who addressed the rally – Wes, Bridget, and Rachel – were coded and subtle. Luke Akehurst MP was less so: ‘He’s not the Messiah – he’s a very naughty boy’. Wes had some decent jabs at the Corbyn/Sultana fiasco, but his invective was mostly directed at Reform UK, and their showcasing ‘medical adviser’ Aseem Malhotra. Malhotra is the man who told Reform UK conference that Covid vaccines had given the Royal Family cancer. Rachel Reeves told the rally that the next election was a fight between Labour and Reform UK. ‘The Tories are irrelevant’ she said. This is the big theme of conference. Being a ‘Labour to Win’ event though, the loudest applause was for the news that moderates had won the priorities ballot.
Crank fest: Keir Starmer’s announcement on digital ID is not only good policy, but also good politics. Having dominated the news agenda for 48 hours, it has annoyed all the right people. Many of them turned up to demonstrate outside conference yesterday with home-made ‘No to Digital ID’ placards, presumably before using their digital IDs to shop, bank, and get the train home. The organisers gave the game away somewhat with the neat, stapled bundle of leaflets they were distributing. One called for mass civil disobedience against the app when it launches, another promoting ‘The Agenda’ a homemade film about ‘the global elite’s anti-humanist agenda’, another plugging a movie about the climate hoax, and yet another about the ‘irrefutable evidence of harm’ caused by 5G phone masts. The Trotskyist paper sellers outside the conference centre have been replaced by pedlars of bonkers conspiracies.
Battle of the pods: One conference veteran, and MP, complained to me in the Pullman late last night that there were too many lobbyists at conference. The public affairs industry is indeed out in force, some opting for discreet dinners and policy roundtables, but others going for maximum visibility. Jim Murphy’s Arden Strategies has excelled itself with a vast double-decker pod by the main entrance, but rivalled this year by new kids on the block Anacta, led by former party bigwig Teddy Ryan. They have erected a double decker pod, but with a roof terrace too. This is a Labour Government committed to a massive building programme, and it seems to have started within the perimeter of conference itself. ‘Vulgar’ one rival lobbyist told me. Another dismissed it as ‘a battle between dating agencies’.
Deja-vu all over again: conference-goers who can remember Oasis from first time around have noticed a pleasing similarity between the design of the ‘Renew Britain’ slogan on the backdrop, and ‘New Labour New Britain’ from the Nineties. The first part is regular, the second is in bold. It’s white out of red. It may be a coincidence, but perhaps the typographical similarity is a deliberate echo of the heady days when Labour won second terms.
Seen around the bars and fringes: Ed Miliband looking astoundingly trim and buff. I’m told it’s down to gym not jabs. New No.10 political secretary Amy Richards resplendent in a red dress. GB News political correspondent Chris ‘Chopper’ Hope with a gaggle of adoring fan girls. Labour peer and publishing titan Gail Rebuck, promoting her campaign to get us all reading more books. Another peer, and Times Radio broadcaster, Ayesha Hazarika on the way to a SPAD reunion. Scottish MP Johanna Baxter, chair of the APPG on cats, delighted at the success of her packed fringe meeting with the Cats Protection League. There were cats, chat, and feline-themed cocktails. Meow-hito anyone? Nick Lowles from Hope Not Hate, speaking at a record five meetings, and promoting his timely new book How to Defeat the Far Right. Bridget Philipson, who the night before had been dee-jaying at the LGBT disco with her deputy leadership rival Lucy Powell. One had a shot and one a pint, and I’ll leave to you to guess which was which.
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