“Get seen and heard”: Day Two at the Labour Party Conference

By Robert Hillier

Day Two started, for me, with a breezy “Morning!” from the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. 

(Conference tip: if you get to the venue extra, extra early (6:30am), it’s just you, the media, and whichever senior politician is on that morning’s media round. They will, at least, give you the time of day, before they are swamped later on.)

I listened in as Reeves tried to sound a bit more upbeat and more smiley during her interviews. Times Radio seemed impressed, LBC’s Nick Ferrari less so.  

The Chancellor was introduced to the stage later in the morning by Alex Depledge, a very successful tech entrepreneur (hassle.com for home cleaners and Resi, a house renovation platform). She spoke about wealth creation and building a high growth economy. 

I won’t précis the Chancellor’s speech here, but I’m afraid the South West did not feature in this key passage: “Jobs in the automotive sector of the future in the industrial heartland of the West Midlands, jobs in life sciences across the North West, clean technology across South Yorkshire, a thriving gaming industry in Dundee and jobs in carbon capture and storage on Teesside, Humberside and right here on Merseyside too.”

But where are we, and what are we going to do about it?

Labour’s manifesto stated their economic policy would be a new partnership with business to drive growth, and a National Wealth Fund to invest in jobs, with devolution. 

I was able to get some more detail at a panel discussion with Sarah Jones MP – Minister of State at both the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the Department for Business and Trade. She acknowledged that Local Growth Plans will have to pivot towards local needs. 

When asked what that would mean, for example, in Devon and Cornwall she mentioned mining and innovation, with councils, universities and mayors (a slight problem) being given more power in local decision making. 

Shevaun Haviland, from the British Chambers of Commerce, agreed that “Devon is not the Midlands” and that a new Industrial Strategy must be “place-based.” Ms Haviland was especially interested in the potential for GB Energy and the South West, with the development of local supply chains for offshore wind as key. 

Really, it’s only at the Autumn Budget on 30 October that we’ll start to get firm policies. This is the warm up. 

What’s clear, though, is that the South West is still missing from even getting lip service. 

The message to us is: get seen and heard!

“Ensuring the South West’s voice is heard”: Day One at the Labour Party Conference

“Speed is key”: Day Three at the Labour Party Conference