Follow along for live updates…
15:12: Speech over.
15:07: Labour Rejoin klaxon. Burnham says he’ll organise a summit with the EU to explore “different” options for the UK’s relationship with Brussels.
15:01: Burnham wells up as he pays tribute to his late father Roy.
14:56: Announces a national commission on electoral reform. Says Labour will contest the next election with a manifesto promise to change the electoral system.
14:43: Burnham says he’ll scrap the Triple Lock in 2030. “The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5 per cent. And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.”
14:41: Says his “National Care Service” will be “fully-funded” and won’t be through borrowing. Massive tax rises guaranteed for the next Labour manifesto…
14:30: Announces “Great British Grid”:
“We will be pragmatic in relation to the North Sea…
“For the first time we will have a national energy plan, and we will bring back local democratic control through a stronger role for mayors and local leaders. But we must go further…
“Today, I can announce our plan for Great British Grid, a new branch of Great British Energy, a publicly-owned company that will challenge private sector operators.”
14:25: Says he will repeal Thatcher’s “ideological ban” of public ownership of water companies.
14:20: Burnham says he will remove the right to buy for new council houses and blames the policy for housing shortages.
14:15: “The British right like to talk about ‘take back control’. Never let them forget they’re the ones who gave it away.”
14:13: “Hope comes from honesty… it comes from saying the things that politicians usually avoid.”
14:09: “For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say ‘thank you Keir'”. That’s all he has to say about his immediate predecessor. Now moving on.
14:05: Burnham onstage. “Today we draw a line on a decade of division.”
14:00: Burnham about to take to the stage. Watch along…
13:46: The mood music at the Fabian LabourList viewing party could be better. Nearly a quarter already want to go home. One attendee told Guido “I made sure to vote no”.
Burnham up in 15 minutes on the main stage…
11am: Rayner on Burnham starting a “conversation” about the Triple Lock:
“I think he’s absolutely right to start the conversation. It’s brave.
“We’ve got a Prime Minister who said I am okay with burning through all my political capital to the point where it might finish me off, on the basis of my legacy will be something better and different.”
10:15am: Burnham will deliver his speech without a lectern. Although the autocue will still be fully operational…
8:49am: Welcome back to Guido’s Live Blog of Labour Conference. Andy Burnham’s speech is set for 2pm. There are rumours he’ll signal the end of the Triple Lock. Lucy Powell has just said on the airwaves that it’s safe… for this Parliament.
Click below to read the Live Blog for Monday.
Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: Guido on the Ground at Labour Conference”
Introducing a rally organised by the Socialist Campaign Group of far-left Labour MPs, Rebecca Long-Bailey told supporters:
“We’re considering disbanding the Socialist Campaign Group, we got a lot of socialism in Andy’s speech.”
The rally featured classic leftist MPs like Richard Burgon, Ian Lavery, and Kim Johnson. Andrea Egan, general secretary of the Unison union, said:
“Comrades, we haven’t been short of positive signals from Andy Burnham, we shouldn’t underestimate the gravity of the British PM talking about ending four decades of Thatcherism, and that is a historic shift in itself. Nor should we undersell the biggest break with Israel for decades… so it’s been an encouraging start and we should be supporting him.”
Egan added how angry she was that Jeremy Corbyn was “smeared and demonised” by the previous Labour regime. Labour NEC member Jess Barnard, meanwhile, said “so many” of the policies once called “hard left or communism” were in Burnham’s speech. Gulp…
Long-Bailey added “what’s clear about this Conference is that the door has been opened again to the membership to have those discussions, to start shaping policy. Andy set out a broad vision today, it’s up to us now to fill in the gaps… shaping the next manifesto.” They’re just getting started…
For some reason Derbyshire’s phone was live on TikTok while she was preparing to host the BBC’s Newsnight last night. Not so happy families…
Burnham’s best mate, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, has boasted about forming a ‘race equality’ unit which hands out contracts to Labour figures. Wheels within wheels…
Rotheram took to Reddit before Labour Conference began for an “Ask Me Anything“. His comms team mostly stuck to softball questions (like Burnham does) but the regional mayor did produce a list of his main achievements after almost a decade in the job.
Prominent in the list was the Rotheram’s establishment of a “Race Equality Hub,” born out of the Race Equality Programme he launched in the madness of summer 2020. The Hub supports “employers and agencies to enable Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic businesses to thrive, creating sustainable employment opportunities.” On 26 July 2021 the Combined Authority announced a £3.2 million budget for it, with then Labour Mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson cheering it on. She was also the combined authority’s portfolio holder for Education, Skills, Equality and Diversity…
Anderson held that role from 2021 until she left office in May 2023. Before leaving, on 19 January 2023, she launched its new ‘Race Equality Panels,’ saying it was “extremely important for me to leave a lasting legacy.” By June 2024, barely a year after she left the brief, Innervision, the woke consultancy Anderson founded in 2020 and now directs, was recruiting businesses for a Race Equality Hub programme. The Hub’s page confirms the business support tender was “delivered to Innervision Consultancy” and a second cohort followed in November 2025. Including a two-day residential and a £1,500 bursary for each participant…
The first cohort of taxpayer-backed businesses includes Inclusion and Diversity in Nuclear, a firm producing “ice cream and side dishes with African inspired flavours”, and a speed dating company. Taxpayer cash is pouring into this stuff – no wonder it’s the fastest growing city region…
Illegal cigarettes are being sold in Chancellor John Healey’s own patch of Rawmarsh and Conisbrough. Illicit tobacco burned an estimated £4.46 billion hole in the Treasury’s balance sheet last year…
Guido has seen industry enforcement data reveals that at least six shops were found selling illegal packs across Healey’s constituency, with prices ranging from just £3 to £5. One shop selling illicit ‘Richmond’ cigarettes within easy walking distance of his own constituency office. The Chancellor will whack an extra £1.21 on a packet of 20 cigarettes in the next few days. Might want to check his own back yard…
At Labour Conference Healey is touting his plans to cut VAT on energy bills and save households £45 a year. But the tobacco duty rise will add 0.26% to inflation according to industry projections, cancelling out those savings. No wonder Labour NEC members are texting colleagues to instruct them to “clap as hard as you can” for the Chancellor…
No10 has, after a long lead-up, effectively scrapped Starmer’s red lines on EU rejoin. It says ‘nothing is off the table,’ including a pledge to rejoin the EU fully or moving back into the customs union or single market. Burnham said that he will set out options around November:
“So, I will take the opportunity around the summit to lay out to you, to lay out to the country, what I believe the different options are for Britain’s long-term relationship with our European partners.”
You’re on…
Heidi Alexander, nearly running out of train operators to nationalise, has found a new target: the trains themselves. She used her conference speech to build on the news that Avanti will be “hauled into public ownership” in March, with Cross Country and East Midlands Railway to follow next year. Her gag for the hall: it may be the first time “Avanti” and “earliest” have been heard in the same sentence. Very good, but not so funny for the commuters forced to use the dreadful service…
Buried within Alexander’s speech was the news that Ministers will now “explore whether the state can directly own the new trains we order“, ending three decades of leasing from rolling stock companies. Alexander’s case is that operators spent over £4 billion in 2024 leasing and maintaining trains they didn’t own. What she failed to mention is why they lease in the first place. Trains cost a fortune up front. Buying fleets outright means billions of new capital costs for the taxpayer…
Back in 2024, publishing its rail strategy “Get Britain Moving” from the safety of opposition, Labour said taking on the cost of renationalising rolling stock “would not be responsible”. Fast forward two years, and exactly that is now the plan. Heidi Alexander just blew the DfT budget in half a sentence, unnoticed by most reporters…
Burnham said in his main conference speech: “For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say: thank you, Keir.”
