Labour Party (UK) Conference

Conference decisions

In the United Kingdom, each major political party holds an annual party conference during the party conference season. In the Labour Party, Conference is the supreme body, although the party leadership has made clear, particularly in recent years, that it will ignore the conference's decisions where it does not agree; constitutionally, a British government must be free to make decisions on behalf of the whole population and cannot be bound by any private body.

Delegates

Delegates to the conference are elected by Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. Currently, affiliated trade unions hold 50% of the votes at the conference – down from 80% in the era before Tony Blair. Some 40% of the votes are wielded by the three largest trade unions (Unite, GMB, UNISON).

Resolutions

Resolutions for debate are put forward by CLPs and unions before the conference begins. In recent years, party members have had less say in what is debated at the annual conference, as the party leadership has tried to move policy-making increasingly into the new National Policy Forums, which meet in private.

Role of the NEC

The National Executive Committee leads the conference (although the details of the conference, including what is debated, are managed by the Conference Arrangements Committee) and if it does not agree with a resolution, the committee may put pressure on the backers to withdraw or remit it. Remittance means that the resolution's backers agree to "send back" the resolution to the National Executive so that it can consider the matter in more detail; this is viewed by some as a mere delaying tactic. The resolutions voted upon are normally composites, meaning that they have been compiled by combining several resolutions put forward by different bodies into a single wording agreed beforehand.

2000 Brighton

The international guest speaker was Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa.

2001 Brighton

The international guest speaker was Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor of Germany.

2002 Blackpool

The international guest speaker was Bill Clinton, former President of the United States of America.

2003 Bournemouth

The international guest speaker to address conference was Hamid Karzai, the first President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

2004 Brighton

The 2004 party conference was held in Brighton during the final week of September. Conference rejected a call for withdrawal from Iraq, but accepted a resolution calling for renationalisation of the railways; the leadership declared that it would ignore this. The conference received some international glamour when it was addressed by the Irish rock star Bono who called for more action to combat the spread of AIDS and the debt crippling African countries.

Conference closed with the singing of The Red Flag and Jerusalem.

2005 Brighton

Over 600 people were held under the recent terrorism acts, including Walter Wolfgang an 82-year-old refugee from Nazi Germany who was arrested for attempting to re-enter the conference without a pass. None was subsequently charged.

2006 Manchester

In 2006 the conference was held in Manchester at the G-Mex and Manchester International Conference Centre from 24 to 28 September. It was the first time in 50 years the main Labour conference was not held at a seaside town and the first time since 1917 the Labour conference had been held in Manchester. This followed Labour's Spring 2004 conference which was held at the G-Mex for the first time. The conference was Blair's last as leader after he stated this would be the case just before the conference and at the conference itself. The start of the conference was marked with protests against the Iraq War.

Tony Blair, in his last speech to conference as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, praised the work of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

The conference was addressed in a joint session by Labour's Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone and the Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa on the subject of climate change. Bob Geldof and Monica Naggaga from Oxfam (Uganda) spoke together about the plight of Africa. The main international guest speaker was the former US President Bill Clinton. Another international visitor – but not a speaker to the conference – was Shimon Peres, the former Prime Minister of Israel.

St Johns C.E. Primary School's steel band also performed there before Tony Blair came on stage.

2007 Bournemouth

The 2007 conference was held in the Bournemouth International Centre from 23 to 27 September. The conference was the first with Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, and he laid out his plans for his premiership. It was all first conference for Harriet Harman as Deputy Leader and First Secretary of State.

2008 Manchester

The 2008 conference was held between 20 and 24 September in Manchester at Manchester Central (formerly G-Mex). The opening day of conference was moved from Sunday to Saturday to allow people who work during the week to attend. The Labour leader and Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, delivered his keynote address on 23 September.

2009 Brighton

The 2009 conference was held in Brighton from 27 September to 1 October 2009. It is noted for a particularly impassioned address from Peter Mandelson given on 28 September in which he claimed that Labour was in "the fight of our lives" as the forthcoming general election approached. Gordon Brown gave his keynote address to the conference on the afternoon of 29 September, saying that Labour was "not done yet". Shortly afterwards Britain's biggest selling newspaper, The Sun announced that it would withdraw its support for the Labour Party and gave its backing to the Conservatives. Union leader and Labour supporter Tony Woodley responded to this by tearing up a copy of that edition of The Sun, telling the audience: "In Liverpool, we learnt a long time ago what to do. I suggest the rest of the country should do exactly the same thing"; in reference to the hostility felt in Liverpool towards The Sun newspaper following its controversial allegations about the behaviour of Liverpool FC supporters during the Hillsborough disaster 20 years earlier. In the Prime Ministers Keynote Address Gordon Brown listed no fewer than twenty Labour Party achievements since 1997 and received an early standing ovation. The address would be his last as Prime Minister and for the Party would be their thirteenth and last party conference in government.

2010 Manchester

The 2010 Conference took place between 26–30 September 2010 at Manchester Central Conference Centre. The conference started with the announcement of the results of the 2010 leadership election and was Ed Miliband's first conference as leader. In his first major speech as leader on 28 September, Miliband told delegates that his "new generation" would return the party to power. The following day David Miliband announced he would not be serving in his brother's shadow cabinet, although he would continue as an MP. Other highlights of the conference included activists condemning the coalition government's proposed public spending cuts as "obscene" on 27 September, and a close of conference address from Harriet Harman in which she told delegates that Ed Miliband would "fortify" the party.

2011 Liverpool

The 2011 Conference took place in Liverpool from 25–29 September. It was the first time since 1925 that Labour had held its Annual Conference there. On 26 September delegates voted to scrap the tradition of Shadow Cabinet elections. Ed Miliband's keynote speech on 27 September suffered a five-minute blackout after all media communications were lost.

2012 Manchester

The 2012 Conference was held in Manchester from 30 September–4 October at Manchester Central Conference Centre. Labour Leader Ed Miliband's speech was the first by a Labour leader in around twenty years to be delivered without the use of an Autocue, enabling him to walk up and down the stage during his speech while maintaining eye contact with his audience, replicating the style of David Cameron in 2005 when running for leadership of the Conservative Party.

2013 Brighton

The 2013 Conference took place in Brighton 22–25 September at the Brighton Centre.

2014 London (Special Conference)

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. The changes included replacing the electoral college system for selecting new leaders with a "one member, one vote" system. Mass membership would be encouraged by allowing "registered supporters" to join at a low cost, as well as full membership. Members from the trade unions would also have to explicitly "opt in" rather than "opt out" of paying a political levy to Labour.

2014 Manchester

The 2014 Conference was held in Manchester from 21–24 September at Manchester Central Conference Centre. Ed Miliband was criticised by his own colleagues for failing to mention the deficit and immigration in his Conference address, despite having promised to do so in his pre-speech press release. It was Miliband's last Autumn Conference address as Labour Leader.

2015 Brighton

The results of the leadership and deputy leadership elections were announced prior to the Annual Conference on 12 September at a special conference. The 2015 conference took place in Brighton between 27 September and 30 September. The new Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, reinstated the use of the Autocue, three years after it had been abandoned by Ed Miliband. It was the first time that Corbyn had used one to deliver a speech.

2016 Liverpool

The 2016 Conference took place at ACC Liverpool, it started on 25 September and ran until Wednesday 28 September. The result of the Leadership election 2016 was announced the previous day with Jeremy Corbyn being re-elected. The conference heard impassioned pleas for unity and a need for the party to gain power from Deputy Leader Tom Watson and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. The party faithful were widely criticised for their apparent disunity among elected representatives but the gathering in Liverpool 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.