The coming of the autumn means it is party conference season.
MPs leave Westminster, with each of the parties descending on a city or town alongside their party faithful and the media for days of speeches, fringe events, networking and, quite often, drama.
These gatherings are ostensibly to hammer out policy, set the party’s agenda and present a united front to voters, but they don’t always go according to plan.
For prime ministers and party leaders, party conferences can often make or break their careers.
So ahead of this year’s gatherings, we take a look at some previous conference moments that have made headlines.
Join Sky News for this year’s conferences: Liberal Democrats: 23 – 26 September Conservatives: 1 – 4 October Labour: 8 – 11 October SNP: 15 – 17 October
Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge
Sky News Monday to Thursday at 7pm.
Watch live on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
Around 18 months into her premiership, Margaret Thatcher was facing a tough economic picture. Unemployment was rising, and there were rumblings within her own party about the direction the prime minister was taking.
Mrs Thatcher had begun changing the law around trade unions, and introduced the legislation to let people buy their own council homes. Privatisation had begun.
Advertisement
The UK’s first female leader remained defiant, telling the assembled party faithful in Brighton: “To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say – you turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”
Mrs Thatcher did indeed carry on with her economic plan, with unemployment beginning to fall after peaking at three million.
She would solidify her leadership with a victory in the Falklands War and went on to win two more elections, serving as PM until 1990.
Image: Margaret Thatcher speaking at the 1980 Conservative Party Conference
1981: David Steel tells Liberal activists to ‘go back to your constituencies and prepare for government’
Just a year after Mrs Thatcher told her party how she felt about changing tack, Liberal leader David Steel sought to inspire confidence in his activists.
The conference in Llandudno saw the party vote to adopt its alliance with the Social Democratic Party, endorsing a partnership that would precipitate the eventual creation of today’s Liberal Democrats.
Headwinds for the government and a strong by-election performance saw incredibly optimistic polling for the Liberals, and Mr Steel was clearly confident in his party’s chances.
It was on that note that he told those gathered on the shores of the Irish Sea: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government”.
The boost of the successful campaign in the Falklands and an economic swing from recession to growth buoyed the Conservatives in 1983 – with the SDP-Liberal Alliance winning only 23 seats in total.
It would be 29 years before any Liberal Democrat MPs were vindicated in preparing for government during a general election campaign, when they entered a coalition with the Tories in 2010.
Image: Liberal Leader David Steel (left)
1984: IRA bombing
A year after Mrs Thatcher’s landslide 1983 election victory, the Conservative Party conference in Brighton was marred by tragedy.
A month before the conference got under way, IRA member Patrick Magee booked into the hotel where the PM would be staying and planted a bomb with a long delay fuse under the bath in his room.
As the clocks swept past 2.30am on 12 October, Mrs Thatcher was in her room at The Grand Hotel, going over the speech she was set to give the next day.
At 2.54am, Magee’s bomb exploded, destroying a number of rooms and bringing down a chimney stack.
Mrs Thatcher and her husband, Denis, survived – as did all the members of the cabinet. But five others – including deputy chief whip Sir Anthony Berry – died.
The conference went ahead, with Mrs Thatcher telling delegates: “This government will not weaken. This nation will meet that challenge. Democracy will prevail.”
Magee was given eight life sentences in 1986, but was released under the Good Friday Agreement in 1999.
Image: The destroyed hotel in Brighton
1985: Neil Kinnock’s Militant Tendency speech
Six years and two election losses into Mrs Thatcher’s premiership, Labour was floundering in opposition.
Neil Kinnock was the man tasked with bringing the party back into government after the 1983 election wipeout under Michael Foot.
The goal he set himself at the Bournemouth gathering in 1985 was to make clear to the more radical parts of Labour that they were not welcome in his plans for the party.
The leader would have been hoping to avoid the embarrassment of 1983, when he fell over on a beach in Brighton.
He used his speech to a tempestuous conference to single out Liverpool City Council, which was controlled by members of the Militant faction of Labour.
The council had set an illegal budget which spent more than the local authority made, claiming that the central government under Mrs Thatcher should fill the shortfall. This was done to protest against the limits to the money the council could raise.
The financial difficulties this caused led to the council sending notice letters to 30,000 employees.
Criticising the left-wing of his party, Mr Kinnock said: “I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far-fetched resolutions.
“They are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, out-dated, misplaced, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end up in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.”
These words were met with applause and cheers from most of the crowd, but some booed and walked out, including MP Eric Heffer. Derek Hatton, the deputy leader of Liverpool City Council, said Mr Kinnock’s words were “rantings and ravings”.
Image: Neil Kinnock in 1985
2003: IDS ‘turns up the volume’
Sir Iain Duncan Smith had been leader of the Conservative Party for two years when he stood up to deliver his speech in Blackpool, but he was facing rumblings of rebellion within his own ranks as MPs and members grew disheartened.
So he decided to go on the front foot.
The previous year, Sir Iain had told the audience his opponents should not underestimate “the determination of a quiet man”.
He played off this riff, stating that the “quiet man is here to stay, and he’s turning up the volume”. Sir Iain told his party that they “either want my mission, or you want Tony Blair – there is no third way”.
But after a poor set of local election results later in the year, Sir Iain lost a vote of no confidence of his MPs and was out as leader.
Image: Iain Duncan Smith at the 2003 Conservative Party Conference
Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips
Watch live each week on Sunday at 8:30am on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
2005: Labour activist removed from hall for heckling foreign secretary
By 2005, the New Labour project was past its zenith. While Sir Tony Blair had won his third election, he had committed to not contesting a fourth.
The government was having to fight a rearguard action in the UK following the invasion of Iraq.
Opposition from within the party was coalescing around those who were also part of groups like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Stop The War Coalition.
It was not surprising, then, that disunity within Labour became one of the themes of the Brighton conference.
Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary, was giving a speech about the Iraq war. He told delegates that “we are in Iraq for one reason only – to help the elected Iraqi government build a secure, democratic and stable nation – and we can and will only remain with their consent.”
As he uttered the line, 82-year-old veteran Labour member Walter Wolfgang shouted “nonsense” – and according to some reports, “that’s a lie”.
As cameras panned towards the octogenarian – who had been a member of the party for more than 50 years – security could be seen manhandling Mr Wolfgang out of the conference hall.
He was later ejected from the conference as a whole, and when he tried to get back into summit he was held – but not arrested – using anti-terror laws.
The subsequent furore lead to a number of apologies, including from Sir Tony the next morning, and Mr Wolfgang being allowed to re-enter the conference the next day.
A founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Mr Wolfgang arrived in the UK just before the Second World War as his family fled the persecutions of Jews in Europe.
His treatment drew criticism from many parts of Labour, and he was greeted with a standing ovation when he returned to the conference hall.
Mr Wolfgang died in 2019.
Image: Walter Wolfgang was eventually allowed back into the conference
2007: George Osborne increases inheritance tax threshold
By now, Gordon Brown was prime minister. After years of tensions behind the scenes with Sir Tony, the latter had finally decided to stand aside. Mr Brown was elected unopposed as Labour Party leader, becoming PM in the process.
Having taken over in June, he was riding a wave of popularity heading into the conference. Mr Brown was judged to have deftly handled a foot and mouth outbreak, the run on Northern Rock, terrorist incidents and flooding.
In the midst of this honeymoon period, speculation grew about the possibility of Mr Brown seeking to capitalise on this and call an election to gain a mandate from voters.
Labour’s conference became dominated by the nascent vote, with people wondering when it would happen, not if.
There was no mention of an election in Mr Brown’s first conference speech as leader, meaning the speculation around a snap poll continued to rumble on as the Conservatives gathered for their conference in Blackpool.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne used his speech to announce a major policy shift that generated positive headlines, pledging to scrap inheritance tax for bequeathments under £1m.
A few days later, Mr Brown ended election speculation by confirming he would not go to the country. He denied being swayed by polling which suggested the Tories were ahead in marginal seats, while the Tories accused him of bottling it.
Image: Gordon Brown’s enemies took advantage of his ‘bottling’
2017: Theresa May’s disastrous speech
One prime minister who did call a snap election after taking over was Theresa May.
But Mrs May’s gamble backfired spectacularly – she lost her party’s majority and was forced to rely on the Democratic Unionist Party to pass legislation through a confidence and supply deal.
Mrs May managed to hang on to her job, although she needed a drama-free party conference to keep things on track as she tried to negotiate Brexit.
But things did not go according to plan during her speech.
First off, a persistent cough dogged her attempts at oratory; attendees were quick to rise to their feet in applause to give their leader a break. At one point, Chancellor Philip Hammond offered up a cough sweet. Mrs May also swigged water throughout.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:16
Watch Tory conference literally falling apart
Secondly, comedian Simon Brodkin interrupted Mrs May’s speech to hand her a P45 – the document someone gets when they leave a job. The mock document gave the reasons for Mrs May leaving office as “neither strong nor stable”, and “we’re a bit worried about Jezza”. Mr Brodkin joked that Boris Johnson had told him to do it.
The final disaster was with the backdrop of the speech. Letters behind Mrs May said: “Building a country that works for everyone”.
During the speech, the “f” fell off, with an “e” dropping later.
It was a disastrous affair all round, and emboldened the opposition to Mrs May within her own party.
The following year, Mrs May sought to head off similar conversations by dancing her way onto the stage, but her moves were labelled robotic and awkward by critics.
Image: Theresa May struggled through her speech in 2017
2021: Starmer heckled by Labour activists
Following the disruption of COVID in 2020, autumn 2021 marked Sir Keir Starmer’s first chance to address a Labour Party conference in person.
But as he was giving his speech, several people heckled him from the floor of the auditorium.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:48
Starmer heckled at Labour conference
One notable heckler was Carole Vincent, a former contestant on Big Brother. She could be seen shouting and pointing at Sir Keir.
In response, he said: “Shouting slogans or changing lives, conference?”, to a standing ovation.
Another audience contribution saw Sir Keir say he was used to being heckled by the Conservatives at PMQs on a Wednesday, but “it doesn’t bother me then, it doesn’t bother me now”.
Ms Vincent told Sky News her intervention was about “standing up in a principled manner against what he was saying, because he wasn’t saying ‘we are going to give a £15 minimum wage’.”
Image: Carole Vincent was one of the people who heckled Sir Keir Starmer
2022: Kwasi Kwarteng U-turns on cutting top rate of income tax
There were not many quiet days while Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were in charge of the country – the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham was no different.
The pair went into October’s conference battling a potential collapse of the pensions sector as markets baulked at their mini-budget. The cornerstone of that fiscal plan was tax cuts funded by borrowing, which some classed as “unfunded”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:00
Moment chancellor U-turns on tax rate
A lightning rod for those displeased with the mini-budget was a plan to abolish the top rate of income tax set at 45p in the pound for those making more than £150,000. It was seen as giving a tax cut to wealthier people at the expense of others.
As the conference started – just a week after the mini-budget – Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng were both staunchly defending the plans.
But there was open mutiny among Tory MPs. In the early hours of the second day of conference, it started to emerge that a U-turn was imminent – and the scrapping of the 45p tax rate was ditched later on that morning.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Just hours later, Mr Kwarteng stood up to deliver his speech to conference, in which he had to defend the gutting of his mini-budget. He claimed the leadership had “listened” and therefore changed tack. Ms Truss said similar in her address.
The events at the conference marked the beginning of the end for the duo. Mr Kwarteng was sacked 11 days later, and Ms Truss announced she was following him out of Downing Street before October was out.
Donald Trump has acted for his country and I will act in Britain’s interests, Sir Keir Starmer has said after the US president imposed 10% tariffs on UK goods.
The prime minister told business chiefs at an early morning meeting in Downing Street: “Last night the president of the United States acted for his country, and that is his mandate.
“Today, I will act in Britain’s interests with mine.”
Mr Trump announced sweeping tariffs on countries around the world, with the UK getting off relatively lightly with 10% tariffs – branded “kind reciprocal” by the president – compared with China, which will have to pay 54% tariffs and 20% for the EU.
A previously announced 25% tariff on British car imports to the US came into effect at 5am on Thursday.
Sir Keir said the government is moving “to the next stage of our plan” after negotiations failed to fend off any tariffs ahead of Wednesday’s announcement.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
He promised any decisions “will be guided only by our national interest, in the interests of our economy, in the interests of businesses around this table, in the interests of putting money in the pockets of working people”.
Image: Sir Keir Starmer hosted business leaders in Downing Street on Thursday morning. Pic: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street
“Clearly, there will be an economic impact from the decisions the US has taken, both here and globally,” he told the business leaders.
“But I want to be crystal clear: we are prepared, indeed one of the great strengths of this nation is our ability to keep a cool head.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the Commons on Thursday the government is considering retaliatory measures and requested British businesses let him know what the tariff implications will be for them.
An “indicative list of potential products” that could be targeted was later published, with 8,364 categories covering about 27% of UK imports from the US.
Earlier, Mr Reynolds told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast his “job is not done” when it comes to negotiating a trade deal
Mr Reynolds refused to say if the tariffs might cause a global recession and said the UK has safeguards in place to ensure it is not flooded with goods that would have gone to other countries.
“We’ll take any powers we need to protect the British people and the British economy from that,” he said.
“What we have directly within our power, alongside that is, of course, the ability to negotiate a better deal in the national interest for the UK. That’s been our approach to date and we’ll continue with that.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:09
Moment Trump unveils tariffs chart
UK will be template for other nations’ deals
The business secretary also suggested if the UK is successful in negotiating a deal with the US “there’ll be a template there” for other countries to “resolve some of these issues”.
He reiterated statements he and the PM have made over the past few days as he said: “America is a friend, America’s our principal ally.
“Our relationship is an incredibly strong economic one, but also a security one, a political one as well.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:39
Sky’s Ed Conway examines how economies across the world are impacted by tariffs
Government ‘very slow’ to start talks
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sky News the government had been “very slow” to start negotiating a free trade agreement with the US, and they should have started when Mr Trump was elected in November, even though he did not get sworn in until the end of January.
He said the UK being hit by a lower tariff than the EU was “one of the benefits of Brexit”.
However, he said the 25% tariff on car exports to the US is “very, very serious” and the global impact is “bad news for our economy”.
Relief in Westminster – but concessions to Trump to come
It has been quite a rollercoaster for the government, where they went from the hope that they could avoid tariffs, that they could get that economic deal, to the realisation that was not going to happen, and then the anticipation of how hard would the UK be hit.
In Westminster tonight, there is actual relief because the UK is going to have a 10% baseline tariff – but that is the least onerous of all the tariffs we saw President Trump announce.
He held up a chart of the worst offenders, and the UK was well at the bottom of that list.
No 10 sources were telling me as President Trump was in the Rose Garden that while no tariffs are good, and it’s not what they want, the fact the UK has tariffs that are lower than others vindicates their approach.
They say it’s important because the difference between a 20% tariff and a 10% tariff is thousands of jobs.
Where to next? No 10 says it will “keep negotiating, keep cool and calm”, and reiterated Sir Keir Starmer’s desire to “negotiate a sustainable trade deal”.
“Of course want to get tariffs lowered. Tomorrow we will continue with that work,” a source added.
Another source said the 10% tariff shows that “the UK is in the friendlies club, as much as that is worth anything”.
Overnight, people will be number-crunching, trying to work out what it means for the UK. There is a 25% tariff on cars which could hit billions in UK exports, in addition to the blanket 10% tariff.
But despite this being lower than many other countries, GDP will take a hit, with forecasts being downgraded probably as we speak.
I think the government’s approach will be to not retaliate and try to speed up that economic deal in the hope that they can lower the tariffs even further.
There will be concessions. For example, the UK could lower the Digital Services Tax, which is imposed on the UK profits of tech giants. Will they loosen regulation on social media companies or agricultural products?
But for now, there is relief the UK has not been hit as hard as many others.
More than 400 pages of thousands of goods that could be affected by reciprocal tariffs against the US.
Everything from fresh domestic ducks to sea-going dredgers makes the cut; most symbolic, however, are iconic American items like jeans, motorcycles and whiskey.
Would Donald Trump stand for a levy on Levi’s? It’s not the first time this battle has played out.
At the time, the UK, then an EU member, followed suit.
But as the UK tries to carve its own path outside the bloc, vindicated by the baseline 10% tariffs imposed instead of the EU’s rate of 20%, the aim is to avoid retaliation.
The government want us to know “all options are on the table” – but that is not how they want this to play out.
“This is not a short-term tactical exercise,” the prime minister said this morning.
Despite the business secretary’s best efforts during his recent trip to Washington to try to secure a UK tariffs carveout, no deal was reached in time.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:54
How will tariffs hit working people?
Mr Trump wanted his big bang, board brandishing moment; carveouts for certain countries would have softened the impact of his speech.
But with 90-plus countries on the tariff billboard, how far along the queue is any UK deal?
And how much are we willing to give? Will the sensitive subject of chlorinated chicken be on the table? What of the agreement to cut taxes on big tech companies that Mr Trump wants?
Lots of questions. The day after the surreal night before is too soon to know all the answers, but this is about politics as much as it is about economics.
As the prime minister launched Labour’s local election campaign in Derbyshire today, he talked about potholes, high streets and school meals. Every question I heard was about tariffs.
Decisions made across the Atlantic are looming large. Tariffs may not directly sway many votes in the local elections, but the consequences for Rachel Reeves’s fiscal headroom and the amount of money she has to spend, or save, will have an impact before too long.
There is a certain steel about a mother who has lost a child.
It’s hard to put your finger on, but perhaps after going through hell you re-emerge made of a different material to the rest of us.
Figen Murray has been utterly relentless after her son Martyn Hett was killed in the Manchester Arena terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
When she worried that politicians’ support was wavering last year, she walked 200 miles from the place Martyn died to Downing Street – and needed a hip replacement after.
And on Thursday, Martyn’s Law – rules to better train staff and safeguard venues against terrorists – was passed by royal assent, finally becoming law.
I sat down with Figen just before she went into Number 10 Downing Street to meet the prime minister, and she told me after six years of campaigning, the moment “feels surreal”.
She continued: “The Manchester attack was a wake up call. But it also made question, who are these people who do these things? Why are they doing it? What are governments doing about it? And I realised the only way I could get the answers was to educate myself – so I did a masters in counter-terrorism.
More on Keir Starmer
Related Topics:
“I’ve recognised that people were radicalised. When you were a newborn baby, you were innocent but somebody poisoned your mind.
“There are people who try to groom young people into their ideology, and I want them to recognise where these people operate, the tricks they use, the things they say and how they can recognise themselves or others in the process of being radicalised and how to get out.”
Image: Martyn Hett
She also supports the initiative to show the Netflix drama Adolescence in schools: “I think it’s absolutely important that young people see that programme and they learn more about it. It’s a good thing and I’m hoping they’re taking it further.”
There will be a debate – certainly – about the financial impact the legislation will have on venues, but the legislation has been welcomed by safety campaigners.
Emma Kay, co-founder of personal safety app WalkSafe which geo-fences events and stadiums, said: “The passing of Martyn’s Law is hugely progressive move that will keep young people safe on nights out.
“Our research has shown that 63% of women prefer to visit venues with safety initiatives in place. People want safer experiences and to know their friends and loved ones arrive home safely.”
When I sat down with Figen, I asked her how Martyn would feel today.
“Knowing Martyn, the party animal he was, he’d throw the biggest party ever,” she said.
“He was full of life and lived life not just at 100 miles an hour, but 200 miles an hour.
“You would definitely know when he came through the door, and he had an incredible ability to make everyone feel that they are the most important person in that moment in his life. And I really miss that.”
You can watch Sophy Ridge’s full interview with Figen Murray on the Politics Hub at 1900 on Sky News.