The gloves are off as Starmer goes for Farage, while Badenoch fights for airtime as party conference season comes to a close

Party conference season is a staple of the political calendar, offering parties a chance for reflection, debate, and galvanisation. Whether rallying the troops, hammering out major policy debates, or engaging in deeper soul-searching, these occasions are rarely dull.

For the Labour Party, fresh from their conference in Liverpool, the mood was more upbeat than might have been expected. Set in the context of floundering polling and trepidation from business and the markets ahead of the Budget in November, the party found itself stuck between two positions of being cognisant of the potential existential threat posed by Reform UK, and the realities of a huge Parliamentary majority and four years to deliver meaningful change for the country. 

The spectre of Farage was undoubtedly looming large over Liverpool this week, with Starmer adopting a gloves-off approach when addressing the conference hall on Tuesday afternoon. Starmer accused Farage of neither liking nor believing in Britain, and Reform UK of ‘stirring the pot of division’ in communities across the country. Pushing back against the ‘broken Britain’ narrative, Starmer’s message was again one of renewal and of patience in tackling the long-term challenges facing the country. 

Ahead of conference Starmer accused Farage’s immigration policies – scrapping indefinite leave to remain – as ‘racist’ and ‘immoral’. Though Starmer stopped short of levelling those same accusations at Farage himself, this conference nevertheless set out the terms for debate ahead of the next election – Farage vs Starmer, Reform vs Labour. Yet with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announcing a tightening of laws around indefinite leave to remain, Reform is certainly shaping the political debate and helping to drag the government into positions which many in Labour may find unpalatable. 

As some of the MPs we spoke to at party conference made clear however, tackling the small boats issue and projecting authority on immigration and national security, it is hoped, will give the party more freedom to talk about those classic Labour issues of housing, public service reform, and social mobility.

Notably absent from the Prime Minister’s speech was the Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch, who finds herself in the unenviable position of competing with the government and Reform for airtime. Ahead of Conservative Party conference later this week, Badenoch pledged to scrap the Climate Change Act 2008 – the UK’s landmark climate change legislation. 

Repealing the Act – which includes former Prime Minister Theresa May’s 2050 net zero target – comes as a clear olive branch to would-be Reform voters sceptical of the government’s current approach to climate change. Along with immigration, a scepticism towards net zero forms a central part of Reform’s policy platform – driven in no small part by the expansion of projects including solar farms in the East of England – now under the leadership of Greater Lincolnshire Mayor Andrea Jenkyns. 

Whether this announcement makes a substantial difference remains to be seen, but in the current Labour vs Reform landscape, the Conservatives have to work harder than ever just to earn the right to be heard.

Once the buzz from conference season subsides, attention at Westminster will quickly turn back to the Budget in November. Faced with floundering growth figures and an increasing strain on public finances, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has the almost impossible challenge of balancing the books and sticking to her fiscal rules while also maintaining support from the backbenches. Reports that the government is considering reform to the two-child benefit cap should help with the latter, but the task remains a steep one if the government is going to deliver on its central mission of economic growth.