Think about Liverpool as the departure lounge, with the new government preparing for take off

Adam McNicholas, Senior Advisor at Stonehaven

Sandwiched between the general election and a series of strategic milestones in the early parliament – notably the International Investment Summit, the Autumn Budget and the forthcoming Industrial Strategy; this was always going to be a conference season that asked more questions than it answered of the new government.

The Labour Party secured a landslide victory in July, and with it, a mandate for change. In the likely event that the Labour government was not going to deliver its manifesto in three months, it was inevitable that we would see stories questioning the pace of delivery and hear some disquiet within the ranks on difficult decisions.

If you weren’t in Liverpool, you could be forgiven for thinking that the conference lacked energy, ideas and intent – judging by some reports. But if you were on the ground, in the hall and on the fringe, the picture was very different.

So what did this conference season tell us about the new Labour government and its intent as it moves from the election and into the next phase of strategy?

1.    Building the plane as it’s taking off

Uncertainty about the timing of the election put the Labour Party on campaign war footing from the very start of the year. Planning for an election that could have happened at any point from early spring to next January added complexities to preparation for government.

When you take into account that the entire Cabinet, senior strategists and advisors transitioned from a general election on Thursday into government on Friday – on a timetable of 6 weeks’ notice (during which time they had the small task of winning an election), you can understand how it is taking a little bit of time to get the entire machinery of government re-orientated to deliver on a new and ambitious programme for government.

No matter how well thought out a government’s plan in opposition, transitioning into government and then into delivery, takes time. Chief executives and senior business leaders who have turned around entire organisations have insight into the challenges of such a significant transformation and the time it takes. Being in government is no different.

And, as we were reminded every time a Labour minister spoke, delivery is underway. Building onshore wind is back on. A new National Wealth Fund is underway. A raft of new Bills on rights at work, planning reform and Great British Energy – to be housed, we learnt, in Aberdeen.

The real test of substance for the new administration will come later in the parliament.

2.    The route is clear

No one in good faith can question the ambition of the new administration’s programme for government: the highest sustained economic growth in the G7; zero-carbon electrification by 2030 (just 6 Christmases away); and generational reform of workers’ rights (if we set aside the small issues of fixing the NHS and controlling Britain’s borders).

Labour’s manifesto was very clear on the direction of travel for the country. Conversations in Liverpool – whether between senior executives and cabinet ministers at the business day; amongst the impressive field of new back benchers on the fringe; or amongst the party faithful in the bars, cafes and restaurants that line the Albert Dock – focused on the ‘how’.

How does Britain secure the future of the steel industry and deliver radical reductions in carbon emissions?

How will the government’s new Employments Rights Bill align with thinking in No10 and DSIT on Britain’s ambitions for artificial intelligence?

How do we get shovels in the ground, cranes into the sky and families into new homes when the barriers to planning have so effectively maintained the status quo for so long?

All conversations lead to how Labour’s manifesto is going to work in practice. It’s clear that government is in the market for new thinking, news ideas and new partners in the delivery of its ‘Missions’. And that some of these will come from the backbenches, with a new intake that brings onto the green benches plenty of real-world experience, energy and leadership.

3.    But expect some turbulence

Labour’s job at the election was to sell a plan to the country. It’s job now is to manage the tensions that will surface from delivering that plan, as the new legislative agenda takes hold back in Westminster.

Take the New Deal for Workers. The government has political cover to deliver modernisation of workers’ rights, something that its new coalition of voters wants and expects, as my colleague Keir Cozens has written about. And it will want to do that in partnership with business, and with an eye on international investors.

There is harmony that can be found between trade unions and business on this, but reforms to exploitative zero hours contracts and the form that the right to switch off might take, will not please everyone.

Or take the small issue of weaning the UK off oil and gas. There is alignment on the need and aspiration to decarbonise the economy – but, as Labour-affiliated trade unions have made clear at this conference, not on the shoulders of the oil and gas workers of the North Sea.

Tensions are an inevitable consequence of being in government. Governing comes with risk. But what is clear from discussions in Liverpool is that, for Labour’s senior politicians and strategists (who delivered a once-in-a-generation landslide for Labour), the biggest risk is to miss the opportunity that is before them.

Adam McNicholas is Senior Advisor at Stonehaven and was Director of Messaging for the Labour Party during the 2024 General Election.

Photo Credits: Alex Savage, Managing Consultant at Stonehaven