Kirstyn Higgins | Political Editor
This Wednesday saw the end of the annual Labour Party Conference, which takes place in Autumn each year as Members of Parliament, local councillors, Party advisors and Party members gather to debate and vote on Party policy, plan the agenda and listen to the Party Leaders speak.
This is the fourth Party conference in the 2015 Conference Season, the next being the Conservatives which will take place in Manchester from 4th to the 7th of October.
This year’s conference took place in Brighton and was the first conference under the new Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who addressed the conference on the 29th September. In his first conference speech as Party Leader, Corbyn put a great emphasis on his patriotism and the importance of what he calls a, “kinder politics.”
Corbyn also used his first address to speak of his wish for Labour to be, “a more democratic Party”, in that policies are determined more openly and less by the Leadership. Inevitably, Corbyn declared his opposition to the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons once again, but surprisingly, the Party voted not to debate the issue at the conference. The key points of his speech were;
- Statutory maternity and paternity pay for the self-employed
- End personal attacks in politics
- The unfairness of the Conservatives
- Labour will offer reconciliation to discontented Scottish voters
- David Cameron must intervene in Saudi Arabia
- Ed Miliband showed “courage and dignity” as Labour Leader.
- A new approach to resolving the Syrian conflict is needed
- The Government should step in to save jobs at the Redcar steel plant
- Voters don’t have to take what they’re given
Jeremy Corbyn received a very warm welcome to the conference and many standing ovations throughout his speech, despite the devestating news to the Labour Party this week of Corbyn receiving the lowest approval rating for any Labour Leader in 60 years; Corbyn received a -8 rating compared to Ed Miliband’s +26 in 2010, with 58% of people being found to believe that Labour has, “seriously lost touch with ordinary people”.
