2021 Labour Conference Report
Experience as a Delegate
I was a first-time conference delegate, and overall, the experience was interesting, enjoyable and rewarding. As a delegate I felt it was a priority to be in the conference hall as much as possible, and I made sure to be there for all votes. That said, I also attended several fringe events, which are summarised below.
I tried to do some reading beforehand on the procedures of conference, and we also received helpful briefings from Claire (and others) on how it would work in practice. I had assumed that proceedings would be somewhat impenetrable and hard to follow – in reality, you pick it up fairly quickly once you’re in the hall. Taking part in votes was a reminder that the party does have democratic structures, and that ordinary members can have a say in policy. It also hit home that being a delegate is a responsibility, in that you are representing the votes of your constituency party.
Speakers / Debates
Not sure there’s much value in summarising the contributions of every single floor speaker, so I thought I’d highlight the speeches that I thought were notable or interesting.
Day 1
Angela Rayner was the first frontbench speaker and started by talking about the pandemic. She noted that we had seen the best of the labour movement; better responses by the Welsh government and metro mayors then central government, the importance of trade unions, and of course the contribution of key workers: the people we exist to represent.
Angela spoke about the Green Paper being published on Employment Rights, which can be found here. I think it’s a really significant document, with a number of important commitments; banning unpaid internships, raising Statutory Sick Pay, using procurement to promote high standards, collective bargaining and ‘Fair Pay Agreements’, reducing insecure work and creating a single status of ‘worker’, remove ‘qualifying periods’ for basic working rights, banning zero hours contracts, outlawing ‘Fire and Rehire’, extending statutory maternity and paternity pay, repealing restrictive trade unions laws, establishing a new enforcement body to enforce these workers’ rights, talking workplace inequalities and gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
This set of policies represent a drastic shift away from the current insecure and exploitative labour market, and I believe will be hugely popular. I’ll be using it on the doorstep. As many have mentioned (from all sides of the party), it was a shame that this document was (somewhat) overshadowed by other topics.
Anneliese Dodds gave the Equalities Report, and noted the two excellent Women’s Conference Motions. There were some fantastic (and genuinely moving) contributions from delegates on these motions, but the one that particularly stood out was from the ASLEF delegate Kerry Cassidy, who is train driver and local councillor. Kerry noted with disappointment that violence against women and girls is getting worse, not better. I was delighted that we overwhelmingly passed both motions.
Day 2
Ed Miliband opened the Environment, Energy & Culture Debate with typically expressive speech! Whatever we think of the overall positioning of the leadership at the moment, I think it’s important to recognise where shadow cabinet members make significant commitments (and hold them to account). Ed asserted that Britain needs a Green Industrial Revolution and a Green New Deal, and stated that we cannot go for a meek tory option of a “Green coat of paint” over the existing economy, but that Labour must choose “an irreversible shift of income, power and wealth to working people”. Conference then passed a very strong motion on Green New Deal, as well a second motion from GMB, which was perhaps less strong, but didn’t seem to be contradictory to the first motion. The commitments from Ed Miliband and the motions agreed mean that the Labour Party has the most radical and comprehensive environmental plan of any of the major parties (i.e a continuation of those policies established under the last labour leadership). We must use this on the doorstep in Brighton Pavilion wards to explain why Green voters should switch to local labour candidates.
Jim McMahon closed the afternoon policy debate (following a fringe event on transport that I attended – see below). Jim paid tribute to the millions of front line transport workers that kept the country going during the pandemic, and noted the dire position of many HGV drivers at the moment. Jim promised “Public Transport run for the public good, not short-term shareholder interest, with democratic control and a strong role for our trade unions”, and in the fringe event before the conference debate, committed more directly to fully publicly owned railway service.
Day 2 also saw further Constitutional Amendments debated and voted on, including the change to the MP nominating threshold for leadership elections (10% to 20%). My only comment on the actual debate, is that there were almost no direct arguments made in favour of this change, even though there were speakers in favour of the NEC motions. From memory, Shabana Mahmood MP (from the NEC) was the only speaker who addressed why 20% was needed, suggesting that if a candidate was unable to persuade 20% of the PLP, they would be unable to persuade the country as a whole. This seemed a fairly facile argument to me, given there have been examples where candidates have received most support from MPs, but have not gone on to secure popular support from members or affiliates. It implies that MPs are better placed than members to pick candidates that the country will support. I might be willing to entertain this argument, if there were any evidence for it. I don’t even think it’s a left or right issue – Michael Foot won a leadership election based on a system where only MPs voted, and didn’t exactly end up being a wildly popular leader with the public.
Day 3
The International Debate was the first policy area of the day, with lively contributions from members on Israel & Palestine, Afghanistan and our place in the world more generally. Brighton Pavilion delegates spoke brilliantly across a number of areas, but it’s certainly worth noting that we proposed an emergency motion on the AUKUS Security Pact, which Claire Wadey then spoke to, and was passed by conference. This was a significant contribution from the CLP, and was reported in the national press (including an article in the FT).
Rachel Reeves gave her keynote speech as part of the Economy, Business & Trade, DWP debate. I was disappointed to hear Rachel use the household budget analogy (and indeed refer to the ‘magic money’ tree) in the days leading up to her speech, mainly because it’s an inaccurate comparison (which she knows better than most, given she’s an economist), but also because these arguments actually help facilitate austerity (more on this below in the context of a fringe event). She made several concrete commitments, including abolishing business rates (which I will withhold judgement on until we know what they would be replaced by!), spending £28bn per year on climate-related investments (really, really good), and trying to equalise tax on income with returns on capital (although I haven’t yet seen a firm commitment on making Income and CGT exactly the same rates).
Amanda Evans also spoke in the Economy debate on behalf of Brighton Pavilion CLP, in the context of referencing back part of the Work, Pensions and Equality NPF report. Amanda made the really important point that thousands in Brighton live in abject poverty, and that inequalities are extremely high. This echoed a discussion with some other delegates from the south coast, who noted that the national media often imply that everyone is fairly comfortable in the South East of England. This is fundamentally not true, and there are large parts of our own city, and many other towns Sussex and Kent, that need just as much ‘levelling up’ as areas of the midlands and the north.
Day 4
I missed the beginning of the Early Years, Education & Skills Debate, but did make it back to the hall to hear important contributions from a number of CLP and Trade Union delegates, including a number of references to Neurodiversity (for example from a Lewes CLP delegate). Theresa Mackey (from Brighton PLP) spoke on our reference back, noting that we need to aspire to fully ‘close’ the attainment gap, as opposed to merely ‘tackling’ it. She also made a point about keeping the ‘D’ (disability) within SEND.
There was also motion on the Right to Food, moved by Michael Hardy from Liverpool Walton CLP (and drawing on the campaign launched by Ian Byrne MP). Michael noted in his speech that Brighton & Hove have been one of the local authorities to declare themselves a Right to Food council. The motion called on the Labour Party to embed a Right to Food policy in it’s next general election manifesto.
Jonathan Ashworth opened the Health & Social Care debate. I think the most important thing to note is that he, and indeed two separate motions, committed Labour to implementing a National Care Service, with the same spirit, principles and passion as we did the National Health Service in 1948.
I had two highlights from the afternoon debate. The first was Judy Richards from Brighton Pavilion, who gave a brilliant speech in favour of the Black Rights Matter composite motion, which achieved massive support in the hall, and a standing ovation from David Lammy MP. The second was a contribution from a delegate called Eve Rose-Keenan from Rotherham CLP. Eve spoke about her experience as a survivor of rape and torture from the age of 10, and the abject lack of counselling and support she received. She noted that she went on to support other women by working in her local Rape Crisis centre – a facility that has now been closed because of a lack of funding. It’s difficult to imagine the level of courage it took for Eve to make that contribution in front of thousands of people in the hall.
Day 5
There was a brief discussion on general election strategy, with contributions from various speakers on the success they have seen in recent campaigns. I thought Hayden Munro’s contribution from New Zealand was interesting, and he stressed the importance of relentlessly positive visions in general election campaigns.
Kier Starmer delivered his first keynote speech as leader. Perhaps I’ll avoid giving detailed views, given most party members will probably have watched it (or highlights) themselves and can make their own judgements. Clearly there is a lot of disappointment amongst left-wing members about rule changes, and the perceived watering down of his leadership pledges, and indeed there was a fair amount of heckling from the hall (none that I observed from Brighton Pavilion). My impression was that Starmer dealt with the heckling fairly comfortably, and seems to have received a positive write-up from the press on that aspect. It was a fairly long speech (roughly 1.5 hours).
Voting Record
I believe that all Brighton Pavilion delegates voted the same way on essentially all votes, although I did want to note two points;
- The debate on the Constitutional Amendment to implement the EHRC recommendations was uncomfortable and painful in several respects. I read, understood and sympathised with the arguments from CLPD and Momentum against the undemocratic powers given to the General Secretary, which call into question whether the disciplinary body would be truly independent. However, I felt that the consequences (even if purely the perception) of Conference voting to reject the amendments aimed at implementing EHRC requirements would be damaging. In the end I chose to abstain. I don’t think we have a Constituency policy on the proposals (not least because they came out during Conference).
- Ahead of the Vote on Proportional Representation, some members of the delegation felt it was established Constituency policy to support (following a meeting with Clive Lewis), whilst others suggested it was unclear if that was the settled will of our CLP, and that there had been subsequent agreement to have a meeting with speakers from both points of view. I am personally against PR, but was prepared to vote for it if it was the clear policy of the CLP. Given there was some uncertainty, I felt the best thing to do was abstain.
Fringe Events
- I attended an RMT Transport event, with representatives of the main Transport Unions – Mick Lynch (RMT), Mick Whelan (ALSEF), Manuel Cortes (TSSA), Diana Holland (Unite, who represent some bus drivers), as well as Catt Hobbs from ‘We Own It’, and the Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon. All the speakers emphasised how disjointed the UK transport system is, and that we haven’t really had a comprehensive / joined-up transport policy for 40 years. One of the more interesting elements was the discussion on public ownership. Jim McMahon made it clear that he supported full public ownership of the railways ‘not because he was ideological on the question’, but because it made rational sense in this particular sector. Mick Lynch responded that he was ideological on these questions, because public transport should be publicly owned and run. Some attendees at the event wondered whether Jim was using that language as a prelude to reversing the position, although I got a good sense of Jim’s integrity and believe it will be Labour policy as long as he is the shadow minister.
- There was an interesting workshop on ‘Avoiding Austerity 2.0: Arguments for Activists’, as part of The World Transformed festival. It was an interactive session run by Matt Butcher from the New Economy Organisers Network and Ellie May O’Hagan from the CLASS think tank. The session was focused on the arguments and narratives used by conservatives to advocate for austerity (as well as other policies harmful to working people). These often centre around comparing the economy to a household budget, or indeed comparing government finances to a bucket where every pound taken out must involve a pound put in. We were also shown the results of ‘Dial Testing’ various narratives with audiences, which gave us an idea of the types of progressive arguments that resonate with undecided voters. One of the most compelling arguments for progressives is to start by building a narrative (from the pandemic) of how connected all elements of the economy and society are.
- I attended an event on ‘Being a Councillor’, hosted by the Association of Labour Councillors. This was a fairly practical, and I thought useful, session on what it’s like to get selected and then serve as a councillor. I asked about balancing the role with a full time job, which they were honest enough to say was possible but not always easy, especially if there is no flexibility from the employer.
- I attended the Tribune Rally, with various speakers from the left of the party. The editor of Tribune, Ronan Burtenshaw, spoke extremely well across the evening, and I think it’s been a wonderful thing to see the publication relaunched under his leadership (I’d recommend it to all members!). The standout speakers for me were Dave Ward from the CWU, who spoke about campaign they are about to launch on a New Deal for workers, and Nina Turner from the Bernie Sanders’ campaign, who gave an inspiring and exciting speech (in a style perhaps less familiar to most Tribune readers!).
Jacob Taylor
Brighton Pavilion Labour Party 