Reporters Liam Thorp and Dan Haygarth take you through the key points from another conference in Liverpool
17:52, 01 Oct 2025Updated 17:52, 01 Oct 2025
Liam is the Liverpool ECHO’s multi award-winning political editor and brings you all the major stories coming from the region’s councils, MPs and further afield. He also oversees the work of a team of local democracy reporters, who cover town halls across the Liverpool City Region. Liam led the ECHO’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has a particular interest in writing about and highlighting social injustice and has broken a number of nationally recognised exclusive stories. He joined the ECHO in 2017 having previously been chief reporter at The Bolton News. You can find him on twitter @LiamThorpECHO
Delegates attend on day two of the Labour Party conference at ACC Liverpool(Image: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool has come to an end for another year. Having begun in earnest on Sunday at the ACC on the city’s world famous waterfront, the event heard from Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Monday and then Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday, who was introduced by a powerful speech by Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall.
The event saw a bruised party arrive on Merseyside after a difficult return to government. Sir Keir’s team has been hit by a number of departures and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is leading a number of opinion polls, meaning the conference was viewed as a chance to get back on track.
The recent laying in parliament of the vital Hillsborough Law was rightly front and centre of the conference, as campaigners said they would ensure it does not get watered down as it passes through its various stages. And Sir Keir’s speech was well received, as he vowed to stand up to racism and hatred.
Andy Burnham’s presence was also a main talking point, as he went into the conference as the subject of plenty of rumours about a leadership challenge. Though he was the most in-demand man at the ACC, those rumours didn’t ever properly develop, as he said he believes Sir Keir was still the best man to lead the party.
Reporters Dan Haygarth and Liam Thorp, who were at every day of the event, take us through the key points that stood out.
Political merchandise is always a bad idea
Housing Secretary Steve Reed with his “Build Baby Build” hats(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
Anyone in politics should be wary of merchandise – especially red caps. But Housing Secretary Steve Reed took no notice of that, handing out rouge headwear with the slogan ‘build, baby, build’ written on them.
Britain does need to build more houses so we’re in favour of the sentiment, but the caps looked profoundly daft.
You couldn’t move for them during the conference and Mr Reed even made the misguided decision to don one on stage, so they certainly got attention. Maybe he’s trying to reclaim the red cap from the American President but it didn’t land at all.
Comfortably the worst hat in British politics since William Hague.
The mood was quite flat
This quite comfortably the flattest of the recent conferences in Liverpool. 2023 saw the party riding high on their way to Downing Street and last year’s event had a slight feel of a victory lap about it, having won a landslide general election victory that July.
Things are very different now, however. A difficult first year in power has seen the party lag behind Reform in the polls and a series of high-profile departures from the government haven’t helped matters at all.
As such, it felt very much like the conference was crucial for Labour to get its house in order. Other than the Prime Minister’s speech, which took aim at those stirring up division, it didn’t really feel like it properly achieved that.
The mood was pretty flat at times, with little new policy or vision from the government to get excited about. A fringe event where Andy Burnham went into depth on the ‘debate’ he said he has opened up within Labour threatened to enliven proceedings, but this still feels like a party working out where it goes next.
Burnham got it wrong
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, walks outside the ACC Liverpool during the Labour Conference(Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Whether he admits that he intended it or not, Andy Burnham made himself the story heading into conference with two feature interviews in national publications in which he criticised the current administration, talked up his own vision for the country and admitted he was being urged to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
But the prevailing feeling around the conference, even amongst those who are fans of the Merseyside-born Greater Manchester Mayor – was that he got his approach wrong.
The simple fact is that Mr Burnham does not have a seat in Parliament, he is not in a position to be collecting the names of MPs for a tilt at the leadership, so many questioned the timing of such strong interventions.
The reality, however, is that he remains the most popular figure amongst members and the one many will still say has the potential to challenge Nigel Farage at the ballot box. Whether he will get the opportunity to test that theory remains in more doubt after this week.
Starmer’s speech delivered
One of many criticisms that gets levelled at the under-pressure PM is that he struggles to connect with people and lacks some of the charisma that his main rivals – both outside and inside the party – possess.
We have witnessed him make plenty of keynote conference speeches before and they can be a little on the dull side. But the general consensus is that this year’s speech was his best yet and we agree.
It was well delivered, well pitched and finally addressed the growing issue of racism and hatred in the country with the right language and the right level of ire.
His performance won’t change the minds of too many people – these things rarely do – but it might buy him a little more time with some.
Hillsborough Law front and centre
Prime Minister Keir Starmer greets Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall after her speech at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool(Image: Liverpool Echo)
When the ECHO was invited to Downing Street earlier this month for the historic moment that a Hillsborough Law was introduced in Parliament – we knew this story would continue to be a big one leading into the conference and rightly so.
Keir Starmer has previously stood on the stage in that same conference hall and promised to deliver the new law – which will hold public officials to account with a duty of candour and even up legal funding for families and ordinary people.
So it felt fitting that he was back in Liverpool on the same stage this year and was joined by Margaret Aspinall, whose son James was unlawfully killed at the disaster in 1989.
She introduced the Prime Minister and praised him for keeping his promise in a hugely emotional moment that no one in that room will ever forget.
Liverpool politicians are wary of Reform
Steve Rotheram speaks at a fringe event at the Labour conference in Liverpool(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Nigel Farage’s party was mentioned frequently throughout the conference. It is no surprise, Reform is now the government’s main threat and it seems that forthcoming and national elections will be between them and Labour, at least for a while.
Liverpool is a Labour stronghold and has been for decades but the rise of Mr Farage’s right-wing contenders is clearly on the minds of its politicians. City Council leader Liam Robinson opened the conference and said he was willing to “fight” Reform in Liverpool.
Cllr Robinson told the main hall: “Liverpool is a very proud anti-Tory city, it’s a very long time since any Conservative won any kind of election round here.
“But we also know there is a new right wing threat to our country and our city, and whilst the name might be different and the colour a different shade of blue, Reform and Farage would be like Thatcher on steroids dismantling our NHS and dividing our communities. It’s a fight we are ready for and a fight we’re up for.”
That sentiment was echoed by Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, who spoke about tackling the Reform surge at a fringe event.
At the event, called ‘How can local places maximise the benefits of devolution to drive economic growth?’, the Labour Metro Mayor said councils in the city region – and his job – could be taken by Reform if his party does not improve its messaging.
Mayor Rotheram, who was re-elected for his third term last year, was asked about how he ensures he engages with as many people as possible in the city region. He used the question to call on the party to improve its communication.
He said: “If we don’t start to articulate it in a much simpler way of messaging from our party that ‘it’s us that are doing all these great things that are happening’, then they will be Reform councils for instance or next time we might have a Reform Metro Mayor.
“That’s the danger of apathy, so we need to get there and ensure that we’re saying the same sorts of things.
“Labour principles, Labour values are important and the likes of Farage can never ever be somebody who represents those values and those principles in our communities.”
Liverpool is a great host city
We knew this before the conference, so it’s less something we learned and more further proof of a fact. Nobody hosts quite like Liverpool.
We were blessed by the weather, which allowed our city’s world-famous waterfront to sparkle, and everyone we spoke to said how much they were enjoying being in Liverpool.
Pubs and bars were busy, with the nearby Baltic Fleet’s outside spaces always full and lively, and it felt like guests in Liverpool got a great flavour of the city.
The amount of politicians, journalists and delegates who have taken to social media to say what a beautiful and welcoming city Liverpool is has also been heartening.
The Prime Minister also told us the best thing about coming back to Liverpool for the Labour Conference. On the eve of the event, he said: “Oh It is the energy and the passion that is palpable as soon as you get to Liverpool. It is fantastic.”
It can’t be underestimated how good it is for Liverpool to host these events and show our home off to the most powerful people in the country.