Burnham’s first conference - is there really hope again?

Jon (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

It's day one of the Labour Party Conference, the Chancellor has just spoken, and the mood has been transformed. Nothing has changed in the country, but at the top of the Labour Party, there is a new Prime Minister, and the slogan is Hope Again.

Lewis Goodall (0:20)

Hope Again, and yet in many ways, the speech that the new Chancellor just gave was anything but hopeful. You could feel the clouds gathering over the political and economic horizon. Is this Labour Party really ready for what's to come? And how much has really changed? Welcome to The News Agents.

The News Agents.

Jon (0:46)

It's Jon.

Lewis Goodall (0:47)

It's Lewis.

Jon (0:48)

And it really does feel a different place from a year ago. It's just extraordinary.

Keir Hoo. What was his name? That bloke. He used to be here. He used to be the Prime Minister.

Lewis Goodall (0:59)

A man with a nice hairdo.

Jon (1:01)

The extent to which he seems to be totally, totally forgotten about and just kind of no abs...

You'd think that if there had been a coup, there would be those people who were the big supporters of him, who would be kind of making noise and still very unhappy and unreconciled to the new leadership. That doesn't seem to be any of him. It just seems to be, he's gone, yeah, yeah, he was Prime Minister briefly, but that's it.

Lewis Goodall (1:25)

I think what there is in this conference, Jon, my impression talking to people, even to some extent from those who weren't necessarily Andy Burnham's biggest fans or biggest cheerleaders, is as a sort of palpable sense of relief. Yeah. And I think the relief is there because you only have to consider what the counterfactual would have been like. You know, if the Makerfield by-election scheme wheeze hadn't come off, if Burnham had lost, if, you know, because it was so contingent, if just something had gone wrong along the way, totally possible, totally credible, and Stammer presumably would still be Prime Minister and Labour leader now. You know, we'll be talking probably about a conference with the blood on the walls, you know, one of those classic Labour conferences where, you know, factionism was everywhere. The question is, how long can he, should he survive?

You know, the Labour Party was seriously considering whether it had a future. I mean, as a political force, as a viable, live political force, that's not how it feels now. They know it's tough. They know that the Burnham bounce is still relatively modest. But what there is an assurance of, I think, is that Burnham has guaranteed them, at least for now, a second hearing, if not a second coming.

Jon (2:32)

Yeah, and that is going to be really important when you've got the budget coming up in October, the 10-year plan that Andy Burnham is going to unveil in November, where presumably we're going to get more detail about the kind of policies that he wants to see to transform Britain as he says it will be.

I mean, it was only a year ago that Stammer was hailing a victory over Burnham when Andy Burnham skulked away from Liverpool during Keir Stammer's speech and was catching the train back to Manchester. The Prince across the water had come and he'd been sent away with a flea in his ear. And now he is the Prime Minister. And listening to him, he was on the radio on LBC with our colleague Sheila Fogarty. He does a half an hour phone in. In content terms, did he say anything that was that different from something that Keir Stammer would say? Probably not. But the way he said it, the way he engaged with people, I think it's given the party a renewed sense of confidence that has been absent. And I think that that is important. But you know, we had the Chancellor's speech today and John Healey again tried to sound full of hope. And hope again is the kind of slogan of the conference.

But you kind of thought, actually, the picture is pretty bleak. And he talked about comparing the position we are in now, Britain we are in now, to the 1990s and new Labour and says it's a very different place.

John Healey (3:52)

The 90s is having a bit of a revival. To Anders' excitement, Oasis are going back on tour.

To Angela's joy, gladiators are back on Saturday night TV. But I have to level with you, conference. The money new Labour had in the 90s is simply not there now. You know, economic growth under Gordon was more than double the Tory years that followed. And Britain has it harder now. We had 14 years of flatlining Tory growth and living standards when Cameron's austerity gutted our public services, when Johnson's Brexit hammered our exports and Truss's mini-budget crashed the economy and collapsed confidence in Britain's fiscal strength. They lost control of Britain's finances. They left a legacy of sky-high debt costs for families and for government. And yet, Kamini Badanok, her new Chancellor, is the very minister that helped Truss write that mini-budget. And even now, he still claims there were lots of good things in it.