Beyond the podium: Navigating party conference season

One of PA Media’s most active streams of news coverage comes from its politics team, headed up by Political Editor David Hughes.

With a revolving door of prime ministers, the Covid-19 crisis and its subsequent scandals, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and that’s before we even mention Brexit – there never appears to be a day’s rest for any political journalist and David and his team are no exception to that rule.

As the party conference season edges near, the UK’s main political parties will potentially go to their membership for one last time before the possible prospect of a general election next year. David and his team will of course be in the thick of it reporting on all the key stories – ahead of this, David gives us his take on the political landscape in the UK, what can we expect from party conference season, how politics coverage has evolved, and what an average day looks like for him at a party conference, plus much more.

• The last eight years has given us five prime ministers and a host of memorable news moments – it’s never been a busier time for UK political journalism, right?

It’s been a phenomenally chaotic period for UK politics. We’ve seen the Brexit referendum result and its political fallout which accounted for David Cameron and Theresa May, the unparalleled peacetime shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, the scandal-hit Boris Johnson era, the blink-and-you-miss-it Liz Truss administration and now Rishi Sunak battling a cost-of-living crisis. 

• With party conference season upon us, what do you expect to be the general narrative of these conferences for the main parties?

It may well be the last conference season before a general election, so the Tories and Labour will be testing out their campaign pitches to the nation.

For the Conservatives, Rishi Sunak will be attempting to persuade both his own party and the country that he is the best person to be in charge.

He knows he faces a battle to turn the polls around – and his party has shown repeatedly in recent years that it has no problem with ejecting a leader – but this close to an election there is little appetite for another round of Tory infighting.

His message to the country will be that he has a plan to deal with the issues he has identified as priorities: halving inflation, stopping the small boats crossing the English Channel, cutting NHS waiting lists, growing the economy and reducing national debt. 

But it is far from clear that he will meet his own definition of success on any of those policy goals and the conference in Manchester may see Mr Sunak saying that he is on the right track but needs voters to give him more time to finish the job.

The Conservatives are also increasingly pointing out problems in London and Wales, where Labour is in charge, in an attempt to persuade the electorate that it would be a risk letting Sir Keir Starmer’s party run the UK.

At Labour’s conference in Liverpool, which unusually falls after the Tory gathering this year, Sir Keir needs to give voters a vision of what he wants to achieve in office.

While Labour has built a commanding opinion poll lead, the leader’s critics believe this is more to do with anti-Tory sentiment rather than a compelling belief in a brighter future under Sir Keir. 

The party needs to demonstrate that it is not complacent – forming the next government after the general election drubbing in 2019 would require a dramatic turnaround – and set out how it can offer change to voters while constrained by what could be a difficult economic inheritance.

Already Sir Keir has been forced to water down a key policy pledge – borrowing £28 billion a year to spend on green projects – because of the state of the public finances.

• What will a busy day typically look like for you at any of the party conferences?

Before the main conference begins on any given day, there are dozens of breakfast fringe meetings at which MPs, ministers and other prominent figures will be speaking. Luckily, many of the events will also provide coffee, which is definitely going to be required.

The major speeches from the conference platform in the morning will be covered and analyzed in depth by the PA team at the venues, with our excellent photographers and video journalists also providing full coverage. 

Meanwhile, the fringe programme will continue with another round of events at lunchtime to cover – again, more coffee and if you’re lucky a sandwich or two – before the afternoon session at the conference hall.

Following that, yet more fringe events – as the evening wears on, the coffee on offer may be replaced by glasses of warm wine of an uncertain vintage which are best left untouched – while trying to use our contacts to get previews of the next day’s events and pick up on any gossip.

The programme of fringe events, receptions and rallies continues until late into the evening, leaving little time for sleep before repeating the whole process again.

• How have you seen political journalism evolve in the last few years – have platforms like TikTok played a role?

It is always important to try to reach as wide an audience as possible. For something like political journalism it is vitally important to find ways to tell complex stories in an engaging way.

Social media platforms like TikTok can offer a way to reach people who might otherwise steer clear of political news.

But TikTok users will not find much from the Government on the platform as the Cabinet Office has banned it due to security concerns.

• Do you expect 2024 to be another memorable year for news in the world of UK politics?

Very much so. A general election is widely expected, the result of which is far from certain. Although the Tories are currently a long way behind in the opinion polls, they go into the election with a comfortable majority in the Commons. 

An outright Labour win would require a dramatic turnaround from the 2019 result. A hung parliament, with no party having an overall majority, is a very real prospect – something which could result in desperate wrangling to put together a viable government.

• With a general election having to be called at the very latest by January 2025 – do you think we will see an earlier election called?

I’d expect Mr Sunak to call the election in 2024 rather than hang on until the last minute in January 2025.

The activists that parties rely on to conduct local campaigns may be reluctant to make the effort required over the Christmas and New Year period and through cold, dark January.

Voters may also be less inclined to engage with politics over the festive period or brave the elements to go to the polling station.

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