How the Conference began
Veterans of Labour Party Conferences can usually work out what kind of Conference it will be within a couple of hours of arrival. In 2024, despite what should have been a huge celebration of the Labour Party’s momentous General Election victory, Labour activists were miserable from the outset as Keir Starmer’s term of office got off to a faltering start. In 2025, the mood was more positive yet still lacking the celebrations that office would usually bring. For many Labour members gathering in Liverpool, this was the first party conference they have enjoyed since winning in 2024. Ministers and others were keen to dispel the gloom and talk up the future. No easy task when people are feeling cost of living pain.
The talk this year has been ‘of getting our party back’. Though there is gratitude to Keir Starmer for delivering a Labour government after fourteen long years in the political wilderness, it was never felt by Labour people that he ‘got’ the party. There is no such sense with Andy Burnham. After a rapturous ovation at the big trade union rally, one member of the audience turned to a colleague and said ‘I feel like I’ve won the lottery’. Another simply said ‘what a great guy’. Two union leaders who spoke to us remarked on the change of atmosphere around Burnham and his team, saying that the Prime Minister recognises their importance, and gives them ‘90 minutes where they used to get 15’.
Burnham has been at pains to show that the Labour Party is under new management and that the previous regime didn’t listen enough to its own core support. ‘If we’d listened more to the trade union movement we wouldn’t have made the mistakes we did’. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, speaking at another event and addressing Labour members in the room directly, said that the Labour leadership had not listened enough to them in the recent past.
And so the Conference theme for 2026 was a simple one. ‘Hope Again’. Burnham has given Labour that precious political commodity again. His biggest test now will be whether he is able to deliver on it.
The Prime Minister's speech
Andy Burnham used his first Labour Conference speech as Prime Minister to deliver his most significant statement of political intent to date. The speech was the clearest and most detailed account yet of what Burnham’s promised “new path” for Britain actually means. Across public services, devolution, Europe and the electoral system, he went considerably further than anticipated in setting out the scale of change his Government intends to pursue.
Burnham’s delivery reinforced that message. He was compelling and at times genuinely moving, repeatedly drawing the room in while acknowledging that not everyone would agree with every choice he was making. That willingness to spell out difficult trade-offs, rather than pretend they do not exist, gave the speech a disarming quality and helped it land. There was also a sense that he was beginning to sketch the battle lines for the next election: social care, Europe and electoral reform were presented less as isolated announcements than as major choices that could define Labour’s next manifesto and a second-term programme, although the relative lack of detail on growth and the wider economic strategy remained a notable gap. Reform wants to fight the next general election on immigration, whilst Burnham is drawing his own battle lines.
The speech was overtly social democratic in its nature and instincts. Burnham repeatedly reached back to 1945, Beveridge and the creation of the post-war settlement, while the modern policies followed much the same logic: stronger public control of water and energy, greater powers for councils and mayors, more intervention in housing and a National Care Service sitting alongside the NHS. Even his “theory of growth” was rooted outside Westminster, arguing that Britain will not generate the investment it needs unless local leaders have greater control over the infrastructure, skills and public services on which growth depends. GB Grid was perhaps the clearest example - a new publicly owned player intended not to eliminate private investment, but to increase competition, speed up grid connections and give the state greater influence over a system Burnham believes is holding businesses back.
That also helps explain the “Hope Again” slogan visible throughout the conference centre in Liverpool. Burnham’s argument was that hope does not come from pretending the choices facing government are easy, but from being honest about them. Stylistically, the speech was light-hearted and conversational in places, with a deliberately simple message: Britain has been on the wrong path, politicians have avoided difficult problems for too long, and his Government intends to confront them. The immediate reception in the hall was enthusiastic, giving No.10 plenty of reason to be pleased with how its central political message landed. There was also a genuinely personal moment towards the end when Burnham became visibly emotional speaking about his father, who died earlier this month, pausing for a prolonged period as he reflected on the opportunities Britain had given his family and his father’s pride in seeing his son become Prime Minister.
Social care provided the biggest test of Burnham’s promise of honesty. He confirmed the existing triple lock will remain for this Parliament, but from 2030 the state pension will instead rise by inflation or 2.5%, whichever is higher, with savings helping to fund a National Care Service. In practical terms, that ends the triple lock in its current form – and Burnham acknowledged there could be a political price for doing so. The political logic is clear - rather than promising pensioners an ever-more-generous annual uprating while leaving families exposed to potentially enormous care costs, Burnham wants to reshape the settlement around older people altogether. But the fiscal logic remains much less developed. We are still no clearer on the eventual cost, eligibility or delivery model for the National Care Service, leaving a potentially eye-watering commitment hanging over already stretched public finances.
Nor was Burnham’s ambition confined to the economy and public services. He effectively put First Past the Post on notice, announcing a national commission on electoral reform and committing Labour to fight the next election on a manifesto promising to change the voting system so that “everyone’s vote counts.” The precise replacement is still to be determined, but Burnham explicitly endorsed proportional representation – potentially one of the most significant changes to Britain’s political system in generations. On Europe, too, he went considerably further than Labour has done in recent years, saying bluntly that Brexit has done “more harm than good” and promising to use the forthcoming UK-EU summit to set out options for Britain’s long-term relationship with its largest market and seek a new consensus. He stopped short of advocating EU membership, but clearly opened the door to a substantially closer relationship with Europe.
That tension between political clarity and complexity ultimately defined the speech. Burnham set out a remarkably ambitious programme to “rewire” the British state, which will encompass utilities, social care, devolution, Britain’s relationship with Europe and even the electoral system itself. The response in Liverpool showed that the message connected with the Labour audience. The harder test is whether the Government can turn the breadth of that “new path” into an affordable and deliverable programme.
Monday's message to business
The Prime Minister used Monday’s Business Day to offer one of his clearest explanations yet of how he intends to translate the Greater Manchester model into a national growth strategy. The overarching message was that Britain needs a more intentional approach to growth, with government taking a more active role in identifying economic opportunities, aligning investment and removing barriers to delivery.
While Burnham repeatedly emphasised his pro-business credentials, the substance was distinctly interventionist. His proposition is that a more coordinated and capable state can create better conditions for private investment.
Burnham argued that Britain's economic potential has been constrained by excessive centralisation and fragmented policymaking. His alternative is to identify what individual cities and regions can become world-leading in, then align infrastructure, skills, universities and investment around those strengths. He cited Greater Manchester's technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing clusters, alongside Liverpool's life sciences sector, as examples.
This is an important evolution of the regional growth agenda. Rather than spreading investment evenly, Burnham wants to develop distinct regional competitive advantages. For businesses, demonstrating how investment strengthens a particular economic cluster could become as important as its contribution to national growth.
The Prime Minister was also particularly critical of Whitehall's inability to coordinate decisions across departments and regulators. He wants No 10 North to provide businesses, mayors and local authorities with a route to faster, joined-up decisions on major projects. This could represent a meaningful shift in how businesses engage with government. No 10 North is being positioned as an economic delivery mechanism, potentially creating a more direct route to resolving investment barriers. Its influence will ultimately depend on whether it has sufficient authority over Whitehall.
Burnham called for a deliberate approach to reindustrialisation, building domestic supply chains around sectors in which Britain has competitive strengths. He was particularly emphatic about public procurement, questioning decisions based primarily on the lowest price and promising a cultural shift towards recognising the wider economic benefits of domestic manufacturing, apprenticeships and social value.
Procurement is increasingly being viewed as an instrument of industrial policy. Companies, including international investors, should expect greater scrutiny of their UK economic footprint. Demonstrating domestic supply-chain investment, employment and skills development could become increasingly important to securing government business.
Burnham acknowledged several concerns raised by the business audience, including the cost of employing people, difficulties retaining successful UK scale-ups and the need to preserve Britain's financial services competitiveness.
There is a clear recognition that the Government's pro-business positioning must translate into tangible improvements in the cost of doing business. The forthcoming Budget will be an important test, particularly on SME employment costs and measures to mobilise domestic investment capital.
Challenged on Britain's internationally uncompetitive industrial energy prices, the PM acknowledged the disadvantage facing UK businesses and highlighted grid connection delays and historic infrastructure underinvestment. He also defended greater public control of essential infrastructure, arguing that it should improve affordability and efficiency rather than be interpreted as anti-business.
Energy policy was framed increasingly around industrial competitiveness, creating an opportunity for businesses to connect their energy and infrastructure priorities directly to the Government's growth ambitions. However, the tension between longer-term energy transition objectives and immediate industrial cost pressures remains unresolved.
The PM said he wants to use Britain's forthcoming G20 presidency to develop common global principles for AI governance. The Government sees AI as both a domestic productivity opportunity and an instrument of international influence. Its ambition is not simply to attract AI investment but to position Britain as an intermediary between competing international approaches to AI governance.
There are three key takeaways. First, Burnham is articulating a different relationship between government and business. His proposition is not that government should withdraw from the economy, but that more active state intervention can unlock private investment. Industrial strategy, procurement, infrastructure and devolution are increasingly being presented as interconnected elements of a single growth agenda.
Second, the geography of corporate engagement is changing. If the PM delivers on his ambitions, businesses will need to think beyond traditional Westminster engagement. Mayors, combined authorities, universities and No 10 North will become increasingly influential in determining where investment is directed and how government priorities are delivered.
Third, delivery remains the central test. The economic vision is becoming clearer, but its success depends on whether government can achieve the coordination the PM believes has historically been missing. His ambition to accelerate investment will require the Treasury, Whitehall departments, regulators and regional institutions to operate differently, potentially challenging established institutional responsibilities.
Conclusions from Conference
If there was any doubt before Labour Party Conference began, there certainly is not anymore. The Labour Party belongs to Andy Burnham now. The contrast from his appearances at the 2025 event, where he cut an almost forlorn figure mocked for his political ineptitude in his non-challenge to Keir Starmer, to this year in Liverpool could not be more stark. Almost as if in direct riposte to concerns about his lack of political mandate, Burnham has taken his party on a breakneck tour of the road he wants to lead the country down. Even previously contentious issues with no party consensus such as electoral reform, where in previous years party managers would spend anxious nights planning how to manage conference debates, were rapturously received on the conference floor as if the Labour Party was always convinced of its merits.
Make no mistake, this was a calculated gamble by Burnham. Giving a speech entirely written by himself, with no lectern or notes, he was demonstrating that he had thought long and hard about every word he said. And not just since becoming Prime Minister. But more important was to show he has a plan. He knows where he wants to get to and how he plans to get there. He knew this is what the Labour Party has been sorely lacking, and he gambled that for his audience to know that they are now being led would be enough.
And on the day in that conference hall, he was absolutely right. One veteran Labour watcher with experience of working in No 10 called the speech ‘the best by a Labour Party leader since Tony Blair’. The leader of one of the country’s biggest trade unions, when we asked what they thought of the speech, said ‘Very good. Very good for us’. Another union leader affiliated to the Labour Party told us that it was ‘excellent’, whilst another influential union figure said it was a speech from ‘a Labour PM who is in tune with both the party and the country’. A minister we spoke to said that Burnham had given people hope again, and without hope you cannot win in politics.
That’s what Labour now feels it has in Burnham. A winner, in tune with the country who will speak to enough of the country to allow Labour to remain in office after the next election. For Labour people, who saw no hope six months ago, that is something in itself.
Labour will leave conference excited for its future again. Battle lines are being drawn for the next election and Burnham has staked out the ground he wants to fight on. His speech today could have been called ‘Burnham Goes For Reform’. The simple electoral arithmetic, state of the opinion polls and sluggish economy make talk of an early election fanciful at best – Burnham has waited too long for this opportunity to risk giving it away before he needs to – but when the election does come his party will in all likelihood go to the polls with a Labour leader that they truly believe in.
What next?
It has been clear from the conversations Edelman’s team on the ground in Liverpool have had with businesses that attention was already on the Budget. With just weeks between conference and the 28th October, many were listening to the Government’s announcements through the lens of what the Chancellor is going to say later next month.
Ministers reinforced that sense of anticipation. When pressed at fringe events on some of the harder questions around funding, tax and spending, the answer often returned to the same point: those decisions are for the Chancellor and the Budget. The moment for those decisions is now fast approaching.
The Budget will be a significant test of the Government’s ability to translate the priorities Burnham outlined in Liverpool and what is likely to be in the 10-year plan into a credible programme for delivery. Business will be looking for greater clarity not only on how those ambitions will be funded, but on the choices and trade-offs the Government is prepared to make.
Before then, attention will turn to the more immediate test of the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, triggered by the resignation of former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. More than a test of Labour’s ability to defend one of its traditional strongholds, the contest will put the so-called ‘Burnham Bounce’ to its first significant electoral test. Polling suggests Burnham has succeeded in drawing progressive voters back to Labour after their drift towards the Greens under Starmer. Holborn and St Pancras will provide an early indication of whether that apparent shoring up of Labour’s left flank translates from the polls to the ballot box.
Materials presented by Edelman's Public & Government Affairs team
For additional information, reach out to Mohammed.Huseein@Edelman.com