By Reece Lister-Roberts, edited by Andrew Duffin
How things have changed since a year ago, when Keir Starmer stood on stage at the docks in Liverpool and delivered a cutting attack on Nigel Farage, speaking of “the fight for the soul of our country”. Burnham has struck a very different chord.
“All together now. That’s my rallying call to the country today… Today we draw a line on a decade of division.”
Our new Prime Minister took this conference, and this moment, to really hammer home this Labour government’s new message of hope, honesty and camaraderie. There was not one mention of Farage, Polanski or Badenoch. Instead, he spoke about his family, the lives they had lived and the foundations that previous generations had built, enabling him to be standing on that stage. He spoke of bringing honesty back to politics and prioritising problem-solving over point-scoring. He set out his ten-year plan for reindustrialisation, devolution and restoring growth to Britain. Most importantly, he spoke about regaining hope in our country, for everyone from young people looking to build a career to pensioners requiring care in their final moments.
“Ours is the same story of so many families, British families of my generation. A story of working-class aspiration.”
This moment, early in the speech, made Burnham’s mission clear: to provide working-class people across Britain with the same opportunities to build a successful life that he and his family were able to have. This theme of working-class aspiration was central to much of his discussion of the problems facing our country and how he plans to fix them. Historically, this would be seen as a central value of the Labour Party, yet recent policies such as the winter fuel cuts, have left many working-class people feeling abandoned by Labour. Burnham made clear his determination to bring these people back to the forefront of policy decisions. He went on to promise that this speech would be different. The audience all expected to be given an idea of his vision for the country, how he plans to turbo-charge devolution and fix social care, and to hear him share his core Labour values. What was less expected was for him to explore so many policy areas that had previously been deemed untouchable.
Housing was the first policy area he explored: reforms to Right to Buy, smaller deposits for first-time buyers, leasehold reform and increased powers for councils to repossess empty and poor-quality housing. He spoke passionately as he said, “Not seeing housing only as a market with winners and losers, but as an essential everyone needs for a good life,” before moving on to another broken essential of Britain.
“Water is a symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain”
This statement echoed much of the rhetoric heard throughout the conference. It is an issue especially prevalent in our home, Oxford. With Angela Eagle at the forefront, Burnham described preparations for a new bill with, whose centrepiece would be, “the repeal of Margaret Thatcher’s ideological ban on public ownership of water companies”. Burnham chose his words carefully here: He did not say that his government would nationalise the water system. Instead, he spoke of closing bonus loopholes, giving mayors new powers to hold water companies to account and, if needed, taking them into public control. After a perfectly placed joke about being unable to build on utilities in Monopoly, courtesy of Mr James O’Brien, he turned to energy costs in the UK. Here, we got less detail, but there was the announcement of a new publicly owned company, Great British Grid, which will compete with the private sector, alongside a national energy plan intended to bring UK energy costs in line with the rest of Europe. He did give some more immediate changes: VAT off bills this Thursday and, of course, bus fare caps in January 2027.
Burnham then dedicated considerable time to social care and his plans to make personal care free at the point of use. He was visibly emotional as he spoke about the recent passing of his father and the need for care to be “about people not profit”. The craftsmanship of the speech was abundantly apparent as he moved from the hard-hitting changes to housing and utilities into this more sombre and emotional section. He ended it by saying: “It will be fully funded, and not through borrowing. Conference, I won’t pretend some of this won’t be difficult.” Which provided the refreshing acknowledgment that political capital was there to be used for meaningful reform, not hoarded away due to fears of the cost.
After that reference to funding social care, Burnham dropped the second big surprise of the speech: reforms to the triple lock in the next Parliament. The lock will become somewhat of a ‘2.5% lock’, with pensions rising in line with inflation or 2.5% with a periodic review if earningsmassively outgrows these two measures. Although many accepted that the triple lock had to go, it was seen as an untouchable area, especially considering the backlash surrounding the winter fuel cuts. Burnham was much more tactical than his predecessor. He justified the change through the decreased social care costs pensioners would face under his government, while also announcing that no low-income pensioners would pay income tax in this Parliament. Most importantly, he has given the electorate transparency, with the policy set to appear in the next manifesto rather than being introduced without a mandate. It is difficult to know how this will play out among the media, opposition parties and the public, but the willingness to call out the elephant in the room is refreshing.
And that didn’t end there. He continued by speaking about the cost of Brexit to our country and said he would consider all options for a closer relationship, leaving the door open to another referendum. The final shock announcement, although not fleshed out, was his commitment to electoral reform. Last year, when he spoke at conference as the Mayor of Manchester, he said there should be “a manifesto commitment to a system of proportional representation”. Well, here it is.
Other talking points from the speech focused on defence and supporting Ukraine, a drive for Britain to become a world leader in AI and an “honest broker”, and the recent UK position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He also spoke briefly about young people, arguing that investment in work placements and mental health support offers a route towards fixing our welfare system.
Before this speech, the conference had felt flat, with no clear idea of what was to come. The same cannot be said afterwards. MPs, staffers and journalists were unrelenting in their praise of the speech, with many feeling that they may have witnessed something historic. Within only ten weeks, Andy Burnham has changed the feeling in the party and brought to life the slogan of the conference:
Hope Again!
Please note: the views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the wider Labour club.
Image used with permission from Viljo Wilding from Leader's Speech-065 | Viljo Wilding | Flickr