> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.europeans.today/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # This year’s Labour conference was the party that delegates should have had in 2024 - URL: https://www.europeans.today/2026/09/30/this-years-labour-conference-was-the-party-that-delegates-should-have-had-in-2024/ - Published: 2026-09-30T00:15:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T01:13:09.000Z - Description: Labour’s buoyant 2026 conference showcased Andy Burnham’s ambitious agenda, but fiscal constraints, electoral reform, Brexit and social care will test whether renewed optimism survives government. - Author: Dr Martin Farr - Tags: COMMENT, Labour Party, Andy Burnham, UK Politics, Keir Starmer, Social Care, Electoral Reform, Brexit, Palestine, UK Pensions, UK Government, Labour Government, United Kingdom . 🔍 WHY THIS STORY MATTERS Labour’s change of leadership has reset its political direction after severe electoral losses, while Burnham’s proposals on pensions, social care, electoral reform and Europe could materially reshape voters’ choices before the next election. --- KEY TAKEAWAYS... ● Labour’s 2026 conference was markedly more optimistic than the gatherings preceding Keir Starmer’s departure. ● Andy Burnham used his first conference speech as prime minister to advance major proposals on social care, pensions, electoral reform and Britain’s relationship with Europe. ● Labour’s new direction follows heavy May election losses, including 1,229 English council seats and a fall to nine Senedd seats. ● The central pressure is delivery: several of Burnham’s biggest proposals depend on future funding decisions or commitments at the next general election. --- T he mood of the party?” is a reliable opening question between news presenter and political journalist. Necessarily imprecise, the answer can still transport the listener or viewer to where they aren’t. Doing so from Liverpool this week invokes the other meaning of the word party. This was the conference that should have taken place in 2024 after Labour’s return to power. But it didn’t, owing to the stumbling of the government in general and the fumbling of the prime minister in particular. Keir Starmer’s first speech in office had dampened the mood, intentionally. This year the Labour party conference was a happy place. The sun was shining; the branding was smiling: Andy Burnham’s beaming countenance ubiquitous. Lauded as a winner in 2024, Starmer always dutifully undertook the leader’s traditional role of meeting the troops, but [barely survived](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/01/starmer-bests-his-conference-critics-but-path-ahead-still-looks-perilous?ref=europeans.today) the 2025 conference. His precarity came across in selfies in which he never looked less than awkward. Conversely, such is Burnham’s propensity for banter that a guard of “big lads” were charged with standing around him to prevent mobbing (as one of them told me). The tone was palpably different from a year ago. In September 2025, almost every conversation alighted on the prospects of the party in the May 2026 local elections in England, and the national elections in Scotland and Wales. “Massacre”, “wipeout”, and “bloodbath” were worn smooth through overuse. But they proved not to be exaggerations. May 6 2026 – an extinction-level event for the party – was not survivable for its leader. The polls, fluid as they are, have shifted. Optimism, which is hard to define but easy to recognise, defined this conference. Next year, there will have been a year of delivery – or lack of it. ### **More hope, less time** The branding of this conference was in itself remarkable. “Hope Again” is as close as you can get to an explicit admission by a party in government that it has been failing. There was hope, in July 2024, with the election win. That government was reconstructed two years later under someone not even in parliament then. That those related events came to pass was because that hope had been misplaced. Hope of winning the next election, hope of preventing a government comprising the radical populist right. Hope Again means: let’s try that one more time. There may be more hope, but there is also less time. This year’s surprise foreign speaker was the prime minister of Norway. “It’s fun to be elected,” Jonas Store told a fullish main hall, “but it’s better to be re-elected.” Burnham, sitting next to him, nodded appreciatively. No issue animates activists – and demonstrators outside – more than Palestine, and foreign secretary Ed Miliband lanced that particular boil with pointed atonement for Starmer’s perceived indulgence of the Israeli government [over Gaza](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/28/ed-miliband-labour-former-stance-palestine-fell-short?ref=europeans.today). Sanctions on settlements is policy almost written by Labour delegates. Last year they had to content themselves with passing a motion; this year there was no need. The main event – the leader’s speech – was more than usually significant. For one thing, the leader mainly wrote it himself. The American writer Gore Vidal once described President Eisenhower delivering a speech with a real sense of discovery. That Burnham demanded authorship – and there may be advisers who wish his time were better spent – is central to his appeal. Personal is authentic. Yet in the prominence of the individual there is also risk. This government is so clearly his, in a way Starmer’s wasn’t, and so it will be if it fails. There has never been so personalised a premiership as this. Starmer saved his leadership last year – and sent Burnham off with a flea in his ear in the process – with a speech that was better than his usual. But he always came across almost as a figure from Greek mythology: half man, half lectern. Burnham has no need for so literal, and figurative, a prop. But his unplanned charm served to highlight the fact that he was not a natural platform speaker. The form seemed to constrain him. In his speech to conference, he broke free. If anyone was in any doubt as to why the Labour Party replaced its leader, they can be no longer. His speech, tears and all, was unlike any other. It reminded those who had forgotten why rhetoric matters. Though there were lines as hoary as “hope in every heart”, the speech confounded Burnham sceptics. A national care service, electoral reform, pension reform, and the undoing of Brexit are policies of seismic significance. The “common good” of which he spoke had been destroyed in the 1980s. And 1945 was an apt historical precedent for Burnham to cite: a Labour government with ambition unbounded. But he did not mention its circumstances being circumscribed. This government cannot reasonably be said to lack direction or purpose. It does, however, lack means and a mandate. Labour’s 2026 conference in its own terms was a triumph; for the government that is necessary but not sufficient. Andy Burnham's speech to Labour Party Conference | LABOUR PARTY ──────────◌ EUROPEANS TODAY◌ 🔮 WHAT MATTERS NEXT... **🎯 WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:** ● Whether the government can translate conference momentum into near-term delivery before the larger reforms Burnham says will require a future electoral mandate. ● The funding architecture for the proposed National Care Service and pensions changes, particularly as fiscal constraints limit immediate implementation. ● How Labour develops its promised electoral-reform process and whether the eventual proposal can command support beyond the party. ● The government’s evolving European policy after Burnham said Brexit had done more harm than good and opened discussion about a substantially closer long-term relationship with the EU. **🎯 MOST LIKELY OUTCOME:** ● Conference optimism is likely to give Labour political breathing space, but its durability will depend increasingly on measurable government delivery rather than leadership change or rhetoric. **🎯 WHAT COULD CHANGE THE PICTURE:** ● Economic deterioration, difficult funding choices or failure to demonstrate progress on public services could quickly intensify pressure on an agenda whose largest reforms are intended for the next parliament. **🎯 WHY THIS MATTERS:** ● Burnham has attached his leadership to a more interventionist programme, making the gap between the government’s stated ambitions and its capacity to deliver a central test of Labour’s renewed political strategy. ────────── [SIGN UP NOW ](#/portal/signup) TO RECEIVE TOMORROW’S BRIEFING IN YOUR INBOX. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2021/09/end-flat-1.png) ### **GOING FURTHER** - ###### [Burnham gambles on radical progressive plan to help Britain ‘rise again’](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/29/andy-burnham-vows-long-term-relationship-eu-labour-conference-speech?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* - ###### [From Brexit to electoral reform: key takeaways from Andy Burnham’s conference speech](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/29/brexit-electoral-reform-key-takeaways-andy-burnham-conference-speech?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* - ###### [Politics latest: Burnham says he’ll adjust pensions triple lock from 2030 to pay for social care](https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-burnham-labour-conference-social-care-12593360?postid=12540696&ref=europeans.today) | *Sky News* - ###### [How will Burnham’s national care service work - and how will it be funded?](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/sep/29/what-are-labours-plans-overhaul-social-care-explainer-andy-burnham?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* - ###### [‘You were right’: Ed Miliband tells critics Labour was wrong on Gaza](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/28/ed-miliband-labour-former-stance-palestine-fell-short?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* - ###### [2026 UK elections: full results from local, Scottish and Welsh votes](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2026/may/07/local-elections-2026-may-full-results-england-scotland-wales?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* - ###### [Keir Starmer to step down as prime minister two years after historic election victory](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/22/keir-starmer-resigns-as-prime-minister?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* - ###### [Andy Burnham to fight next election with plan for NHS-style care service](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/27/andy-burnham-election-nhs-style-care-service-labour-conference?ref=europeans.today) | *The Guardian* ### --- #### **Sources:** ###### ▪ This piece was originally published in [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/this-years-labour-conference-was-the-party-that-delegates-should-have-had-in-2024-293257?ref=europeans.today) and re-published in Europeans TODAY on 30 September 2026\. | The author writes in a personal capacity. ###### ▪ **Cover:** Screenshot from [LABOUR PARTY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT6b9Opy69E&ref=europeans.today). --- ![The Conversation](https://counter.theconversation.com/content/293257/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic)