A view from Labour Party Conference: A changed Labour party with no room for complacency

A lot can happen in a year. When the Labour Party last came to Liverpool, Liz Truss’s short time in Number 10 was starting to unravel. With that period providing the watershed moment in which victory at the next election looked possible for Labour, we entered this year’s conference with a win looking probable. 

In what is likely to be the final party conference before the next election, the mood on the ground in Liverpool is one of guarded optimism and confidence, with an acute awareness of the need to avoid complacency. 

The Party has been here before, after all, and no doubt the experiences of elections such as 1992 and 2015 will be driving the leadership’s desire to avoid complacency in taking victory for granted.  

On the ground, there is very much the feeling that Labour is the main attraction. Business interest is as high as it’s been in many years, with the Business Day a particular draw for Executives from some of the world’s leading firms, including Goldman Sachs, Boeing and Amazon. If the goal was to turn conference into the hottest ticket in town, then Keir and his team can pat themselves on the back for a job well done.  

Combining the evidence on the ground with headline grabbing endorsements from figures such as the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, expect businesses to continue to be drawn to Labour and in particular the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Winning these endorsements back now looks to be a major challenge for Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt if the Conservatives are to remain in power.  

In past years, conference has been the battleground of warring factions vying for control over key policy debates on the conference floor. This has been almost entirely absent from the story of this conference and will no doubt be a massive relief to the leadership.  

This is a Party with different priorities now, and different views on how and where policy should be formed, with the leadership setting the direction and the membership limited in its capacity to influence it. This isn’t to the liking of everyone, but few will complain if the ultimate outcome sees Keir in Number 10.