Rachael Smith | Reporter
Conferences for the British political parties are concluding this month, with many taking place in various city centres – here’s what you have to know.
The SNP is the main political influence in Scotland and earned 35 MP’s in the 2017 election. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was likely to have set the focus of the conference on Scotland having a second independence referendum, as the majority of Scotland did not support the Brexit decision. She states it would be unfair to drag Scotland out of the EU “against our will.”
However the deputy first minster and education secretary John Swinney delivered a keynote for progress, revealing plans to introduce bursaries for career changes into teaching. Specifically, encouraging those from STEM backgrounds into teaching, offering up to £20,000 as an incentive. The plans are ambitious but would be a strong boost to the education sector.
Labour has recently revolutionised the left wing of British politics, where Jeremy Corbyn has shown that rather than hovering around the middle, Labour can achieve success by standing for what it believes is right. This party’s conference was held in late September in the esteemed city of Brighton, where Jeremy Corbyn discussed a number of things. He spoke about how his party was now “political mainstream” as it was what most people “actually wanted.” The policies he put forward were rent control, a curb on gentrification and further talk on scrapping tuition fees all over the country, again appealing to the young demographic.
The Liberal Democrats had their conference in Bournemouth, mid September. After increasing their numbers of MP’s due to the 2017 general election, the party’s leader Sir Vince Cable valiantly claimed that with a mixture of “hope and realism” he could lead his party back to the height of its political power. He talked about Brexit and how it would severely damage our economy. He also commented saying how he would induce higher taxes on foreign property speculators and also hoped that owners of second homes would help to tackle and reduce inequality.
The conservatives conference which took place between the first and fourth of October in Manchester City, focused on capping energy prices and also the announcement that Theresa May planned on a £2 billion expansion on council housing. There was also unexpected and surprising talk from the conservative party about reviewing how the NHS and other public health services viewed and treated mental health, with May saying she had inquired to a professor Sir Wessely to take this investigation on himself. Theresa May also talked about capping and reviewing student loans and university fees, in what experts say was an attempt at luring younger voters, after Labour managed to swing the under 30’s vote in the previous election. She steered clear of the topic of brexit, and this is presumably due to Boris Johnson publicly undermining her about her brexit strategy, leading to her telling the party that they need to unite and “shape up”, perhaps an indirect dig at her foreign secretary.
UKIP’s political party conference was held in Torquay in September where, Henry Bolton, who was earlier crowned the new leader of the party. The former soldier stated that brexit was the main concern of the party at the current point in time, but was not “the end of the line.” UKIP’s share of the vote in the 2017 election completely collapsed to just a meagre 1.8%, resulting in the resignation of previous party leader Paul Nuttall.
The Green Party’s conference is to take place mid October in Harrogate this year, where a co-leaders speech is to occur. With a small number of 1.6% votes in the general election, Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley have a lot to discuss with their party. A few of the policies thought to be mentioned are mainly environmental ones to do with deforestation and climate change.
