Watch · Summit Post
Good morning from Liverpool (and hello again to the newsletter subscribers I met in person, as I took First Edition on tour to Labour party conference). It’s the first gathering of the party faithful since Andy Burnham ousted Keir Starmer in July, in what I’ve heard delicately referred to as a “soft coup”, and the theme of this conference is “Hope again.” Yesterday, in an engaging and emotional speech that staked out bold positions on some of the most intractable issues of the day – social care, NEETs, electoral reform, the EU – Burnham added substance to the slogan that graces the banners hanging from the lofty ceilings of the exhibition hall. You can read our politics team’s key takeaways here .
Meanwhile, on the conference fringe yesterday evening, the debate continued between energised activists and “policy grownups” warning of dire fiscal headwinds. Today I’m passing on what I saw and heard during my 48 hours with the lanyard class – but first, the headlines. Five big stories UK news | One of the five men arrested near RAF Fairford as part of a terror investigation that prompted fears of an Iran-backed plot called the police to report the incident .
The call from the man, in his 20s and from London, was one reason armed police were scrambled to arrest the men. Football | The Premier League has confirmed Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges of breaching its financial rules over a nine-year period, with the club found to have boosted their income by a staggering amount of more than £900m. France | More than 400 people, most of them children, have been detained in France on Tuesday after teenagers across the country blockaded their schools in protest at class sizes, teacher shortages and long timetables.
US politics | The Trump administration can resume quickly deporting immigrants to a “third countries” , or countries other than those immigrants’ homeland, without giving them any opportunity to contest their removals, the supreme court ruled on Tuesday. UK news | A six-month trial of live facial recognition technology in London’s railway stations cost more than £320,000 and led to one false match against a watchlist of suspects and no arrests. In depth: ‘He has a natural instinct for connection’ Andy Burnham takes the stage at the Labour conference on Tuesday.
Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA As I wandered past the merchandise stall at conference, I noticed the Burnham-branded mugs had sold out within hours, with one lonely ‘hope again’ tote remaining. “It’s good isn’t it?” said the salesperson giddily. Her combination of relief and excitement marked most of my encounters with activists, campaigners and politicians around the exhibition stalls and fringe events during my two days in Liverpool.
Things are undoubtedly looking up since last year. Local members have a spring in their step; cabinet ministers are smiling; and party activists have a new message to offer on the doorstep. Everyone tells me this is all about Andy: “His empathy cuts through,” says one Scottish politician, “He has a natural instinct for connection,” says a campaigner from Manchester, “People on the doors love him!” exclaims a branch organiser from Loughborough.
But if you’ve never been to a party conference like this, how can I best describe it? First of all, it’s huge. Merseyside police said they were anticipating 20,000 delegates and visitors to the city over four days.
And let’s not be coy: inside the secure zone, where people pay to attend, it’s pretty corporate. There are plenty of middle-aged white guys in expensive suits, ranging across a disappointingly narrow colour spectrum. Business professionals, thinktanks, and members of the podcast industrial complex all stride around purposefully.
It’s a vortex of networking and not everyone can afford to join in: even with a cheaper members’ pass, if you include train fare and accommodation you won’t get change from a grand – which excludes a lot of the grassroots groups and smaller charities practising exactly the kind of community power that Burnham preaches. “How do I explain this to people back in Sheffield?” asks one community organiser. “It’s a bubble.” The party members If you don’t trust my exhibition hall chats on the mood around Burnham, get a load of these stats: according to the latest polling for LabourList , 92% of members surveyed in recent weeks believe Burnham is governing well, while 80% believe the party is heading in the right direction – compared with 48% under Starmer last summer.
It’s the same Burnham bounce that Labour is enjoying in polls across the country. Just as the party talks of the public “giving us another hearing”, Burnham, it seems, is succeeding in making members from every tribe, faction and level of the party feel heard. Already there’s a sense of what action under Burnham might look like.
Campaigners talk about a new openness around No 10, and a sense that he recognises the easy wins, a break from the party’s previous sclerosis. But as LabourList editor Emma Burnell cautioned at the fringe event launching the polling data: “it’s a double-edged sword because it does come with expectation and a more precipitous drop.” More granular data shows members’ focus is now all on delivery and the level of nervous anticipation can’t be overestimated. As one respondent fretted: “Is this just Starmer with better comms?” This wariness around whether Burnham is more “good vibes” than workable policy is understandable, but I detect some snootiness too – that believers might just be too dense or naive to appreciate the economic context.
Regardless, good vibes are what gets activists out leafleting on a rainy Saturday morning. The protesters Burnham has caught some criticism this conference, with plenty of people with something to say outside the secure zone. Amira Campbell, an activist with Green New Deal Rising, was outside the conference centre early on Sunday morning with 50 jobless young people, arguing that the current employment crisis that’s affecting one in eight of our 16- 24-year-olds can be helped along by green jobs creation.
At 24, Campbell says the current Labour leader is “definitely the most progressive” she’s known, though – when we meet just after chancellor John Healey’s speech – she questions whether his framing of reforming welfare benefits to incentivise employment grasps the complexity. “Young people have record levels of anxiety and depression and instead of accepting life has got a lot harder, we’re often dismissed as snowflakes. But we know poor mental health correlates with poverty.” She expresses a niggling suspicion that Burnham may be less interested in younger voters than in the good opinion of their parents “because what matters to young people is not high on agenda”.
Take the looming decision on drilling in the North Sea, which my Guardian environment colleagues believe is being held until after the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, which Labour is defending against Green leader Zack Polanski. There’s also the question of the continued proscription of Palestine Action. There were 82 terrorism arrests outside the conference hall this weekend, for supporters holding the now infamous “I oppose genocide.
I support Palestine Action” signs – including Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, who last shared a stage with Burnham for World Environment Day in June. After Ed Miliband told delegates “you were right” on Gaza, campaigners say these arrests call into question Labour’s “Palestine reset”. Yesterday morning, Miliband admitted it was never anyone’s intent to criminalise “elderly people, vicars and grannies” – a phenomenon I reported on in this previous First Edition – while adding vaguely that it’s something the government will “keep looking at”.
The speech Back in the conference hall on Tuesday, Burnham’s address felt like the speech the party had been waiting for. After the victory doldrums, then ugly infighting of the past two conferences under Starmer, this was the catharsis Labour needed. The ideas were substantial – like the “21st-century deal for pensioners”, ditching the triple lock to fund a national care service – but easy to explain to voters.
He told delegates that hope requires honesty – and then led by example. Burnham admitted he’d “love to go quicker” on measures to ease the cost of living, “but we have to be honest about what our country can afford”; he set out positions on pensions and Europe that he knows will attract angry opposition; and then he he showed genuine emotion, choking up about his father, Roy, who died only two weeks ago. Delegates urged him on to carry on speaking.
All Together Now, as his exit song goes. At a post-speech analysis event yesterday evening, Luke Tryl of research agency More in Common said the speech had hit home on every metric. Since Labour was elected in 2024, the public’s appetite for radical change has grown.
Burnham was “very control focused”, at a moment when people believe the social contract is broken and that successive governments have lost control of issues like migration and welfare. And he focused on a clear break with Starmer. Tom Baldwin, Starmer’s biographer, was also on the panel: he observed that Burnham had included familiar policies which the government was already working on, but he succeeded in “telling a bigger story” about them than his predecessor.
One risk, Baldwin suggested, was that – by outlining the care service, Europe and electoral reform as key issues for the next election campaign – Burnham leaves a gap. Voters will want immediate action on living standards, and yet, with the government constrained by factors well beyond their control – like the global bond sell-off driving up the cost of government borrowing, international conflicts curtailing growth, and another energy price shock – that might be hard to delilver. skip past newsletter promotion after newsletter promotion Whatever the challenges for next month’s budget, Burnham is on top for now. He returns successfully from conference, with a largely jubilant membership and a list of policy proposals that they are properly excited about.
He’s offered the hope, now we’ll see what the public makes of his honesty. What else we’ve been enjoying National Aquarium, Marine Life Park, Okinawa, 1975-2002 (architect: Fumihiko Maki). Photograph: Kaneaki Monma Iconic 20th century Japanese buildings are being torn down at scale, and this gorgeous photo story documents just some of the country’s now-demolished lost architectural gems.
Michael Patricia Nilsson has investigated who is behind the pornification of the internet, and says there was a time when the men who owned the biggest pornography businesses were happy to be famous – “These days, the men calling the shots are nowhere to be seen,” she says . Poppy I always aim to inject new dishes into my repertoire, and there’s plenty of #ontrend inspo in this list of autumnal food trends. Angostura chips I’m here for ... might pass on the pickled gummy bear.
Michael Johnathan Liew’s column , on how the Manchester City case goes deeper than one club, one league – or even one sport is a riveting read. On the face of it being “found guilty of more than 100 charges of financial irregularity may feel like so much so-what ...” he says, But in reality, “it is a parable of power.” Poppy The film-makers of NAZA – a documentary exposing the technological mechanics behind Israel’s mass-killings in Gaza – speak with unwavering eloquence in this week’s episode of the Stateside podcast. Michael Sport Harry Kane celebrates with teammate Anthony Gordon after scoring his team’s second goal against Czechia.
Photograph: Martin Divíšek/EPA Football | England needed second-half goals by Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane to defeat Czechia 2-0 , while Scotland’s new boss, Sebastien Pocognoli, expressed “frustration” that an early red card for Jack Hendry left his side a man down in their 3-0 loss to Switzerland . Snooker | The former snooker world champion Graeme Dott has been jailed for seven years at the high court in Edinburgh after being convicted of sexually abusing two young children. Football | Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly have been dropped from England’s squad because of their performance levels by Sarina Wiegman, who has given a first call-up to the 20-year-old Chelsea midfielder Lexi Potter.
The front pages Photograph: Guardian Andy Burnham’s conference speech dominates the front pages on Wednesday. The Guardian leads with “‘Today we draw a line on a decade of division’”. The Financial Times says “Burnham sets out his vision taking in Europe, social care and voting reform”.
The i has “Burnham gambles on scrapping UK state pension triple lock – and voting system”. The Telegraph has “Triple lock scrapped by 2030”, while the Mail calls it “Burnham’s triple shock”. The Times says “Tearful Burnham stakes future on free care for all”.
The Sun labels it “Locky horror show”, while the Mirror has “I will build a Britain my dad would be proud of”. Today in Focus: The Latest Photograph: Guardian Diesel export ban: will Trump push global energy prices even higher? As the fallout from the Iran conflict continues, the price of diesel has soared to record highs in the UK, Europe and US.
With his country facing an increase of 70% in costs compared with this time last year, Donald Trump is threatening a ban on US diesel exports to keep costs low for American consumers. But the plans have been met with alarm – the UK is holding talks with US counterparts to try to block the move, which France says would be ‘catastrophic’ if introduced. Lucy Hough speaks to energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose .
Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad ‘I tried blind football for the first time and realised the football door would open for me’: Samantha Gough with her guide dog Helga. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian Footballer Sam Gough has a remarkable sporting career: from being taken out of PE lessons as her vision deteriorated, to becoming captain of the England women’s blind football team , and one of the global game’s best strikers. Ahead of the 2026 IBSA Women’s European Championship kicking off in Istanbul on Saturday, the 23-year-old reflects on her achievements on and off the pitch, and what it takes to master a version of the beautiful game that involves eye masks, metal-plated balls and shouts of ‘VOY’ before every tackle.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
Source: The Guardian
