Labour Party Conference

[40] Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey announced his plans for a $3.9 billion loan from the IMF to tackle inflation, as well as continuing existing pay policies and public spending restraints.

[citation needed] In his speech, Kinnock attacked Militant and their record in the leadership of Liverpool City Council, leading to a walkout led by Eric Heffer.

[11][12] On 25 September, John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, made a speech stating that Labour would "take the Tories to the cleaners" in the next election, and called William Hague a "drunk in charge of a bandwagon.

[50] The conference began with a two-minute silence, an address from the Chief Fire Officers Association praising firefighters in New York, and a speech from culture secretary Tessa Jowell.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott also gave a speech, with The Guardian noting that he "dropped his usual party conference knock-about routine.

"[53] Blair also spoke of an international "Partnership for Africa",[51] giving the private sector a larger role in public services,[54] and a potential review of student funding and tuition fees.

[56] In Blair's speech on 1 October, he pledged to "quicken the march of progress" in reforming the UK's public services, and said that Labour was "best at its boldest - and so far we've made a good start, but we've not been bold enough."

[64] During the speech, he listed Labour's achievements, dismissed a new top rate of income tax, stated that it "wouldn't be fair" if education funding came from the taxpayer, attacked those opposed to foundation hospitals, advocated pluralism in the public sector, and defended his decision to go to war in Iraq.

[64] On 1 October, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) attempted to force an emergency vote on the Iraq War onto the agenda which called "for the withdrawal of coalition troops", but this failed.

[71][72] To end the conference on 2 October, Prescott told the party in a speech to stop "tearing ourselves apart," after unions forced ministers to accept a motion on compulsory employer pension contributions.

[73][74] The conference was addressed on 30 September by the Irish rock star Bono who called for more action to combat the spread of AIDS and the debt problems African countries.

This included Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year-old peace activist and refugee from Nazi Germany who was removed from the conference for shouting the word "nonsense" at a speech on Iraq by Jack Straw, and later detained under the Act when he tried to get back in.

Primary School's steel band performed before Blair came on stage[citation needed] for his last speech to conference as party leader and prime minister.

[84] Union leader and Labour supporter Tony Woodley responded by tearing up a copy of that edition of The Sun, telling the audience that "in Liverpool, we learnt a long time ago what to do.

[95] It was the first speech in around twenty years to be delivered by a Labour leader without the use of an autocue, enabling him to walk up and down the stage while maintaining audience eye contact, replicating the style of David Cameron's Conservative leadership bid in 2005.

[citation needed] A special conference was held at ExCeL London on 1 March to approve rule changes arising from former general-secretary Ray Collins review of party reform.

[citation needed] Ed Miliband was criticised by his colleagues for not mentioning the deficit and immigration in his Conference address, despite having promised to do so in his pre-speech press release.

[99] The conference heard impassioned pleas from Deputy Leader Tom Watson and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan for unity and a need for the party to gain power.

However, delegates and elected representatives came together in harmony on many issues, including opposition to plans for grammar school expansions, a 'hard Brexit' and on accepting more unaccompanied child refugees into Britain.

I could've walked into any food tech, history, art, maths classroom and just watched seas of spaced-out, stressed-out, depressed kids, in a battlefield where they can't afford pens and paper!

In terms of policy, Corbyn pledged that a Labour government would give cities the power to bring in rent controls and introduce restrictions on gentrification projects, citing the then recent Grenfell Tower fire.

[106] Fringe events at the conference included the second year of The World Transformed,[107][108] at which former party leader Ed Miliband hosted a political pub quiz, focusing on Labour history and current affairs.

[103] Centre for Cities, a think tank focused on cities in the UK, hosted a "the future of urban leadership" event, chaired by Andrew Carter with a panel consisting of Andy Burnham, Steve Rotheram, Michelle Dix (Managing Director of Crossrail 2), Francesca Gains (Head of Politics at University of Manchester) and David Orr (Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation).

[122] Real Britain, an event hosted by The Mirror, was chaired by Kevin Maguire and had speakers such as John McDonnell, Len McCluskey and former footballer Neville Southall.

[31][32] Earlier in the year, there was talk of hosting a special conference on a resolution to the deadlock on whether Labour should back a second referendum on Britain's relationship with the European Union.

[128] Conference delegates voted on and supported several policy motions, including: supporting a Green New Deal - which included large investments in windfarms and making the country carbon neutral by 2030, reducing working hours to 32-hour week within a decade, abolish private schools, free prescriptions in England, the creation of a National Care Service (a care-focused counterpart to the National Health Service) and extension of voting rights to all residents of the UK regardless of their citizenship.

[129][130][131] Jeremy Corbyn brought his speech forward by a day due to the Supreme Court ruling that the prorogation of Parliament by Prime Minister Boris Johnson was unlawful.

Taking place from 19 to 22 September, the virtual conference was renamed Labour Connected and described by the party as focused on "people coming together, to create a fairer and better society".

[157] Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves made her speech on 9 October, and spoke of a stance of "securonomics," which The Guardian stated was similar to U.S. President Joe Biden's language on economic nationalism.

[158] Also on 9 October, Labour MP Apsana Begum left the conference due to safety concerns after she tweeted a photograph of herself supporting the Palestine Solidarity Campaign during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.