Reflections from Labour Party Conference: why being in the room still matters
by Miriam Hanna, Director & Chardonnay Bradshaw-Shallow, Associate Consultant
This month, Chardonnay and I headed to Liverpool for Labour Party Conference. The most immediate observation was simply how different the atmosphere felt from last year. There was more energy, more opportunity for engagement and, generally, more people available and willing to have conversations.
There was also a noticeable change in where the attention sat.
Power beyond Westminster
Devolution was a major theme throughout the conference, with regional and local leaders featuring prominently across the events programme.
That reflects something increasingly important for Corporate Affairs teams. Political influence doesn't sit neatly within Whitehall or with ministers alone. Mayors and regional leaders have growing profiles, their own relationships with business and increasingly significant influence over the direction of the party nationally.
Being physically at conference makes that much easier to see.
You can follow speeches, announcements and policy developments remotely, but it's much harder to understand where relationships are forming, who people are listening to and where influence is beginning to shift without being in the room.
Andy Burnham's first conference as Prime Minister demonstrated some of that change. He was prepared to raise substantive questions around areas including electoral reform and public ownership, while devolution remained central to much of the wider conversation.
The end of his speech was also noticeably personal. His reflections on his father, care and the Union brought an emotional close to the conference that felt different from the political speeches we've become accustomed to hearing.
An interesting backdrop from Reform
Alongside Labour, Reform has inevitably been part of the conversation this conference season.
The general reception we've heard suggests a noticeable increase in interest from businesses and advisers in being present at Reform events. The motivation isn't necessarily about making assumptions about who will form the next government. It's about recognising that Reform has become part of the political conversation and could influence the policy positions and manifestos of the other major parties.
There is also a sense that Reform is still in the process of developing many of its more specific policy positions. For organisations engaging now, that creates an opportunity not just to understand where the party is heading, but to contribute expertise and evidence while those policies are still being shaped.
The reception to the conference itself appears to have been mixed, particularly among the business audience. But the broader point is perhaps more interesting than the experience of any individual event: organisations increasingly feel that understanding Reform requires some level of engagement with it rather than watching entirely from the outside.
Being there still matters
Our biggest takeaway from Liverpool was therefore a fairly simple one.
For Corporate Affairs teams, being physically in the room still matters.
Not simply because conference gives you access to ministers or government, but because political power is becoming more diversified. It's spread across national politicians, regional mayors, local leaders, advisers, businesses and the wider networks developing around them.
Conference gives you an opportunity to see those relationships in practice – and often to spot where influence is moving before it becomes obvious from Westminster.
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