A new era? Reflections from the Labour Party Conference 2026
By Alfie Seymour, PoliMonitor Senior Content and Service Officer
As he stood in front of an adoring crowd at the Labour Party Conference, it felt as though Andy Burnham was trying to drag the UK into a new political era grounded in one word: control.
Burnham used his Conference speech to tell voters what the structural changes he wants to introduce to Britain might look like: a new National Care Service, funded by changes to the triple lock in 2030; Great British Grid; electoral reform; and a reworked relationship with the EU. The proposals were bold, both rhetorically and in scope.
They’re also expensive and it was notable that Burnham offered little to suggest that there were further imminent measures to ease the cost of living, far and away the most important issue to UK voters. What’s more, any plans Burnham makes will continue to be vulnerable to the UK’s precarious financial position, as well as international turbulence. And then there is the question as to whether Burnham has the authority vested from within his party and from the wider public to enact these changes without calling a general election.
But it was hard to shake the feeling that Burnham’s speech marked an attempt to change the political conversation in the UK. He started his speech by insisting that it would be “different” to the usual “tub-thumping” party conference speech. His decision not to name either of his two biggest rivals at the next election, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, felt refreshing in the era of adversarial politics since the EU referendum in 2016. For many people my age, that style of politics is all we have ever known in the UK and regardless of the substance, the style Burnham employed will linger in the memory. Writing in The New World, Lucy Reade also noted how the Conference felt like the challenges young people are facing were being recognised as a “mainstream political problem”.
What’s striking about Burnham’s approach to communicating his vision is that it reads like a model answer to the criticism that was repeatedly levelled at his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer: as former Prime Minister Tony Blair argued in May 2026, successful governments need “an idea, a project, a governing purpose, an analysis of what is wrong and a plan to put it right,” something Starmer’s critics frequently accused him of lacking. Burnham has rooted his pitch to voters in opposition to the changes made under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, accusing the right of giving up the control that was promised during the Brexit referendum.
Control, mentioned 24 times by Burnham in his speech, appears to be the founding idea of his long-term vision for the country.
Across the whole Conference, the mood was one of excitement about what’s to come. Speaking to Labour members, delegates and councillors as they tried to name all the post-war Prime Ministers at PoliMonitor’s stand, it was clear that Burnham’s rise to party leadership had created a more optimistic atmosphere at this year’s conference. Though most were sympathetic to Sir Keir Starmer, many remarked that Burnham’s arrival has lit a fire in Labour’s base that was said to be missing at last year’s conference.
At the fringe, Labour MPs and ministers appeared confident in promoting Burnham’s early interventions. At an event discussing whether cost-of-living populism could be a route to success for Labour, More in Common’s Luke Tryl noted that Burnham’s early actions in government had given voters a sense that he is “trying” to fix the key issues in their lives. The panel, featuring DESNZ Minister Polly Billington, theorised that these early “retail” policies would allow Burnham the “second hearing” needed to enact the structural changes he wanted for the UK.
But for all the messages about delivering change, it is also clear that Burnham’s Government remains in its infancy. DCMS Minister Vicky Foxcroft admitted as much speaking at an event on Gambling Reform, noting she had only taken on the brief in August. Concrete timelines for reforms were hard to come by; despite a summer of retail politics to bring the public onside, this is still a Government formed in a matter of months, and with a new figure in No.10, the direction of travel is yet to be established across many areas.
Regardless of whether Burnham succeeds in changing the defining issues in British politics, party conference season has certainly felt like the beginning of its next chapter. Despite continued scrutiny surrounding the party’s finances, Reform UK are still the country’s second most popular party in the polls, but now face the challenge of maintaining their appeal as an established political presence without the momentum which drove them to the top in 2025. Kemi Badenoch used the Conservative conference to display her command over her party, while ruling out any deal with Reform UK, even in a hung parliament.
The Green Party, seen as the rising political force at the start of 2026 but now finding its political oxygen being consumed by the Burnham Government, will have to contend with the fallout of the controversial motion declaring Zionism a form of racism passed at its Conference, as well as Zack Polanski’s loss in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Meanwhile, criticisms of Sir Ed Davey’s approach as Liberal Democrat Leader are becoming increasingly prevalent, and the recent resignation of Charlie Maynard as Treasury Spokesperson only intensified questions around Davey’s position.
The challenge for Burnham now lies in whether he will be able to continue to set the terms of the political agenda, something his predecessor struggled to do amid the rise of Reform UK. That might be easy to do when on stage at his party’s conference, but outside of Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock, the control he seeks will be harder to come by.
