Labour Conference 2019: No Agreement on Brexit Policy & failed Coup Attempts

Strolling along Briton pier towards the conference venues, I am reminded of the many key party events that took place here that have shaped party conference history.

Of course, there was the 1986 assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher at the Brighton Grand Hotel by the IRA; and the monumentally exiting meeting of Labour shortly after the historic election victory of 1997, and Tony Blair’s rousing speech that set a new course for the nation, to name just two.

Brighton is teaming in political history.

This year, Labour conference has been—and promises to be—equally eventful. On the very first day, allies of Jeremy Corbyn made moves to oust deputy leader Tom Watson. They did not gain enough support (no thanks to the Leader of the Opposition who said he was ‘absolutely fine’ with Watson), but have instead sought to limit his powers.

The rift between the Corbynist wing of the party and those more aligned with new Labour remains abundantly clear. Yet it is not the only divide.

Today, Labour was supposed to vote on the party Brexit policy. Currently, their position is to force a general election (though not before no-deal-prevention legislation has been enacted), take power, re-negotiate the Brexit deal, then put it to the people in a referendum. But they would not decide whether to endorse their own deal or the option to remain until a later date.

For obvious reasons, this has anti-Brexiteers up in arms. Unfortunately, most of the active party delegates are anti-Brexiteers, and this means there is a rift between the party’s leadership and their foot-soldiers.

The party leadership would not be wise to flip to a remain position, however. Polls show that Labour voters (not members) are generally pro-Brexit. This puts the party in a bind. It’s reluctant to take a clear position for fear of putting off huge swathes of the party faithful or the less-faithful—but more numerous—Labour voters.

All in all, this means the National Executive Committee (Labour’s ruling body), has opted to continue this ‘wait and see’ position on Brexit. In the hour that this has become apparent, Labour’s biggest affiliated union and one other union has distanced themselves from the policy. The fact that a union has split from the party over a key policy is monumental. The point of Labour is to unite differing factions under policies that will serve ‘the many not the few’, yet the leadership has failed.

The fact that this comes when the party should be within inches of seizing power does not bode well for the upcoming general election.

In other news, Jeremy Corbyn’s top policy aide (and author of the 2017 Labour manifesto) quit the party and Corbyn himself faced rumours that he was going to quit.

In terms of other policy announcements, the conference voted to begin the abolition of fee-paying schools; the party announced they would abolish the education regulator, Ofstead, and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell announced a Labour government would shorten the working week.

No controversy for any of those announcements, of course.

All in all, it seems Labour conference has begun in a farcical way. They have two days to rescue from the depths of despair. John McDonnell has begun the PR campaign saying ‘there are no problems at Labour conference, only good debate’.

I’ll not ask whether you believe him.

Aside from the main conference events are a series of fringe events run by various organisations. This year’s agenda is hugely positive from the data and marketing perspective. Many events ask questions about how data can play a role in their industry or about the delivery of public services. Similarly, data and tech are seen as allies in the fight for a more equitable, diverse and fair society rather than barriers.

This is great news for the industry and no-matter which government takes control in the upcoming election, support from and to the data and marketing industry appears to be safe.

If you’re around at Labour Conference tomorrow (24 Sept), DMA Managing Director Rachel Aldighieri will be speaking at a fringe event run by the Institute for Government and the Advertising Association at 1300. If you’re at Labour conference, do come along.

I’ll be on This Week with John Nicolson on talkRADIO at 1620 every Sunday giving the latest from each conference over the next few weeks. You can listen again to my take on Labour here (skip to 1620). Catch my roundup of the Lib Dems from last week here (skip to 1620). Similarly, Keep your eyes peeled for a DMA Politics Podcast with special guests coming up soon.

If you’re at conference and would like to catch up, please send me an email and I’d be delighted to have a chat.