Conference 2023 Report

By Elizabeth McWilliams, delegate for South East Cambs CLP

It was a great privilege to be selected to attend my first Labour Conference as the delegate for the South East Cambs CLP (now Ely and East Cambs, having changed to reflect the new boundaries post-conference). I had no idea what to expect but it was a brilliantly immersive experience where I sought to represent our CLP to the best of my abilities. Herewith a summary with some of my thoughts for our CLP.

Saturday I arrived at the Conference Centre in Liverpool in time for the delegates welcome reception, where we were welcomed first by General Secretary David Evans and then by Keir Starmer. Both talked about the shambolic government and the desperate need for change. It was extraordinary to hear that this was the largest Conference yet with over 18,000 attending, including 2,000 journalists.

After this it was the Eastern Region reception where there was a real buzz. We were treated to numerous speeches by David Evans and Keir Starmer again as well as Yvette Cooper, Rachel Hopkins (MP for Luton), Emily Thornberry and the Labour Party Chair Anneliese Dodds. Keir was emphatic that the path to No 10 goes through the East. The mood in the room was one of huge positivity in light of our recent by-election wins. I briefly got to meet Keir and told him that a win in the coming by-election in Mid-Bedfordshire would be transformational in rural seats in the East such as ours: destroying the Lib Dem narrative that only they can challenge the Tories. I also had long conversations with Rachel Hopkins and Emily Thornberry. Rachel promised to come canvassing here come the GE, whilst Emily and I both moaned about the viciousness and deception in Lib Dem campaigns. I was also interviewed by ITV Anglia and told them about the strong Labour campaign in Mid-Beds and how positive it feels there, and shows that we too can work for victory in rural Cambridgeshire. Sunday Ahead of the opening of the main conference hall on the first day proper, I attended the Eastern Region briefing, where the various voting mechanisms were explained to us and I was given my ballot papers and card votes. Here we heard that Labour can now finally match the Tories on election spend £ for £, something not previously possible. It was reiterated that victory in the East is crucial to the next election.

Once the main Hall opened, I took my seat for what was a largely procedural day: voting to approve the report by the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC); decide the 6 policy areas to be debated through the priorities ballot (to join those already voted on by the Unions and Women’s Conference); and vote as to whether to approve the National Policy Framework (NPF), along with accepting various rule changes proposed by the National Executive Committee (NEC).

In addition to the voting, it was the turn of Deputy Leader Angela Rayner to address Conference with her speech. One of the themes of this was that true levelling up gives more power to local leaders and she mentioned that our Labour mayors are doing great work in making transport affordable. To great applause she confirmed that there would be no watering down of the New Deal for Working People, which will be implemented within 100 days of Labour taking office. Conference was also delighted to hear of plans for the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, including council house building. This would be coupled with tightening rules to stop developers wriggling out of their responsibilities and banning no fault evictions for renters. These issues are clearly of great importance to our CLP as our population grows and we see a large amount of development. During the Party’s Finance Report we heard that there have been 1,000 new members since the recent Conservative Conference, this was followed by two interesting sessions: Why Rural wins for Labour and Winning the Next General Election. In the latter, Sureena Brackenridge MP made the point that winning an election should be hard: we are asking people to trust us and many people who have never voted Labour.

At the end of the day came the votes. There were differing viewpoints in the hall over rule changes, specifically in the ‘Getting CLPs Election Ready’ category. One of the changes seeks to reduce the number of required roles on CLP Executive Committees. A point was made by a few delegate speakers from rural CLPs such as ours that they struggled to fill 14 EC roles. It was emphasised that this change did not stop CLPs appointing a wider set of EC roles, but it did mean that where a CLP has few activist members and struggles to fill roles, busy people would not be required to take on additional work just to ensure the post was filled. With that viewpoint in mind, I voted for the rule changes as recommended by the NEC and was pleased to vote for our excellent NPF document (a summary of which can be read on the Labour List website).

For the Priorities ballot for the policy areas to be debated, I voted from the 49 options: Ethics & standards in politics (I am currently reading Chris Bryant’s excellent book on this!); An NHS fit for the future; Energy; Violence Against Women and Girls; Higher Education (due to that being the subject of our CLP’s motion); and Climate & Ecology. Unfortunately, Higher Education did not make the ballot so I was not able to attend composite meetings to represent our motion, and nor did Climate and Ecology. The first 4 did make the ballot, the other 2 policy areas were Defence and Ukraine.

At the close of the day’s main Conference business in the hall, it’s time to head to one of more of the enormous number of fringe events. I joined a really excellent panel session featuring Steve Reed (Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), along with Tanya Steele (CEO of WWF), David Exwood (VP of the NFU) and economist Heather Buchanan, discussing how the nature crisis is part of climate crisis. Steve made the point that without nature, there is no food or society: we are nature. In one of most nature-depleted countries on planet, the Tories ignore the problem and instead use as a wedge issue to divide the country. It is therefore imperative that Labour have policies to address both nature and climate crisis going into next election. Relevant to our CLP, the point was made that farming must be better subsidised in order to produce high-quality food in a more sustainable way: it is far better to have a majority farming more sustainably than just a few headline exciting projects. For farmers we need to be world-leading, but without regulation becoming too complex. (Interestingly, post-Conference I was chatting to a local farmer who said exactly this unprompted!) Monday It was an absolute privilege to be in the hall for speeches by David Lammy and Lisa Nandy as part of the International session of debates. Lammy spoke of Labour’s unequivocal support for the European Convention on Human Rights and a future where our country was no longer ‘Little England’, but an internationalist one who does not regard the French President as a foe. His insistence that Labour will stand up for what is right was met with a huge standing ovation from the crowd. Meanwhile, an equally passionate Nandy had the Hall on their feet with her insistence that Labour will stand up for women around the world because women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are non-negotiable. Within the Growth for Higher Living Standards session, Sharon Graham of Unite gave an incredibly passionate plea for renationalisation of critical infrastructure of our utilities and public transport, as she moved the motion on this topic on behalf that was voted to the priorities ballot by trade union delegates. The cheers from the hall as she spoke for workers made it hard to ignore an appetite for profits from the public sector to be invested in the public sector, rather than going into shareholders’ pockets.

The big and powerful speech of the day was that of the Shadow Chancellor and Rachel Reeves was extremely well received by Conference. The refrain she came back to over and over was, ‘Ready to serve, ready to lead, ready to re-build Britain’. The words ‘serve’ and ‘service’ are important ones that came up again and again throughout Conference, positioning our Party in a very different way to the Conservatives. The speech was introduced by former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney in order to underline Reeves’ serious economic credentials for the role.

I voted for all motions, along with the majority of delegates, including the union priority areas debated around care work, and the use of AI technology. All motions passed with huge majorities. The most controversial of these will be the critical infrastructure one, since Labour has felt unable to make the spending commitment required for this. However, based on conversations I have had with many in the CLP, I felt it important to show support for that aim, even if as a long-term goal.

Once the main hall closed, I attended two fringe events: one around one of our five missions, to become a clean energy superpower; and one organised by the University of London around community empowerment, including speaker slots by Ed Milliband on community energy and our local County Cllr Alex Bulat on voting right for migrants. I finished the day at Karaoke with Lisa Nandy, Thangam Debonaire, Keir Mather and Michael Shanks all taking turn to DJ and Stephen Kinnock performing possibly the worst karaoke ever heard! Tuesday It was incredibly exciting to be called to speak to the first of the day’s composite motion, one around violence against women and girls (VAWG), and specifically issues of personal safety. I am proud to be part of a movement that takes this so seriously. As I said in my speech, I can’t believe this is even something we would debate in 2023! I am delighted to be able to take the messages to the doorstep of the important work on this that we will do in govt, such as making misogyny a hate crime. The other motion for debate was based around ethics in politics. Again, it is brilliant that Labour is committed to transparency and accountability, so missing from the last 13 years of Conservative Government. The main event of the day was the Leader’s Speech, and what a privilege to be here this year of all years. The energy and passion in the room, absolutely at capacity, was extraordinary. Standing ovations and cheers were constant. The media no doubt focused on a protestor throwing glitter on Starmer, but actually it was quickly shrugged off and he continued completely unfazed. He even alluded to it, saying Labour is not a party of protest, but one of service. ‘Ready to serve’ was a constant refrain in Reeves’ speech. This is one of the many ways where we differ from the Conservatives: they want to rule, a Labour Government will serve. The positivity in the room was so infectious, it is easy to feel that winning the next General Election is a mere formality. But Sir Keir reminded us that there is still much to be done. We too must roll up our sleeves and get to work!

The votes at the end of the day were for the VAWG and ethics in politics motions, as well as two others on Challenges Facing Retail and the High Street and the New Deal for Working People. All four motions supporting the Party’s planned actions as set out in the NPF were voted completely unanimously and I was proud to vote with the floor. After the Hall closed, I attended two fringe events including an incredibly powerful rally against VAWG chaired by Jess Phillips. In it we learned that 86% of women have experienced sexual harassment. The first two speakers spoke movingly about women close to them murdered by their partners and another of her spiking and date-rape experience. We learned that the current Government had stated that there was no public appetite to make spiking a stand-alone crime (Labour have committed to doing just this). One male speaker spoke about the importance that men are allies in the battle and are not passive by-standers when their male friends use language that strays into that of sexism and abuse, even if supposedly in jest.

Wednesday

Sadly, I was unable to stay for the entirety of the final session due to needing to get back home as my husband was ill, but I did hear some of Bridget Phillipson’s talk about Labour’s plans for education.

Conclusions

The entire Conference is available on YouTube and it is definitely worth watching the big speeches in particular.

The two words that I heard again and again were ‘service’ and ‘discipline’. The former is crucial because it is what distinguishes us from the Tories (who want to rule, not serve), and the Lib Dems, who simply want power for power’s sake (and going by their record on South Cambs District Council, seem unable to know what to do once they have it!) Discipline speaks to three issues to my mind: the economic discipline needed to turn the country around and get people to vote for us who have not previously voted Labour, and who may think Labour are too quick to tax and spend money we don’t have; the discipline not to take any votes or election victory in the GE for granted, but to listen and to fight for them without complacency; and internal discipline, not to fight each other, but to come together as Labour members to take our fight to the Tories.

On the latter point, the Conference was extremely good-tempered with little to no heckling and a mood of huge positivity. It’s positivity I have brought away with me and can’t wait to take to the doorsteps!

You can read a summary of the NPF document here: Revealed: Full final policy platform set to shape next Labour manifesto - LabourList | Latest UK Labour Party news, analysis and comment.