One moment at Labour Conference in Liverpool showed key question for party's future |
One moment at Labour Conference in Liverpool showed key question for party's future
Reporter Dan Haygarth looks at where the Labour Party goes after its conference in Liverpool
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, speaks onstage during the Labour Conference 2025 at the ACC Liverpool(Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
"There's nothing more unstoppable than an idea whose time has come", said Andy Burnham as he walked into a fringe event on the first day of the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. The Merseyside-born Mayor of Greater Manchester was the centre of attention as the conference began, with rumours of a leadership challenge to Sir Keir Starmer swirling.
His arrival at a fringe event on electoral reform and proportional representation (PR) in a hall at ACC Liverpool on Sunday evening was met with a deluge of photographers. The room was packed out with members of the press - and it was not necessarily Mr Burnham's view on changing the voting system which had brought them there.
Though said about PR, the "idea whose time has come" comment could be interpreted in a number of ways given the talk going into the Labour conference. There were two feature interviews in national publications in which the mayor criticised the current administration, talked up his own vision for the country and admitted he was being urged to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Mr Burnham is a vocal supporter of proportional representation and used his speech at the fringe event to make his point that changing the voting system could allow for the introduction of a new type of politics, one which aligns with his brand of 'aspirational socialism'. But he also called on the Labour Party to be braver and make changes to how it operates.
The 55-year-old told the room he had done no more than launch a debate in the party - he said he supported the government but made it abundantly clear he wanted to see a........