Labour conference lookahead | Thursday 29th September
The who, when and where of the Labour conference.
By Samira Shackle Published 29 September 2011 9:19
Look out for
In her closing speech to the Labour conference, the party's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, will accuse the Conservatives of plotting to wipe out millions of Labour's core votes by pushing people off the electoral register. Plans to introduce voluntary registration would disproportionately affect young, poor, and ethnic minority communties -- all more likely to vote Labour.
She will tell party members: "The Lib Dems - to their eternal shame - are colluding with the Tories in changing the law on the electoral register. What they plan to do in the White Paper is going to push people off the electoral register, deny them their vote, deny them their voice."
Signs of trouble?
As the conference winds to a close, the key issue within the party remains Ed Miliband's leadership: namely, how far he has managed to clearly set out the direction in which he wishes to take the party, and whether this message will get across to the public.
After an asssured performance yesterday, some delegates are tipping Yvette Cooper as the next leader of the Labour Party, even claiming that it is not the "first post-Brown/Blair conference", but the "first pre-Cooper conference".
Conference timetable
Morning - 9.30am: Conference opens
Northern Ireland Report from Shaun Woodward, shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland
Local Government Report from Councillor Dave Sparks, leader of the LAGA Labour Group
Speech by Caroline Flint MP, shadow secretary of state for communities and local government
Closing Speech from Harriet Harman MP, deputy leader of the Labour Party
12.45pm: Conference closes
Latest tweets
More from New Statesman
- Tools and services:
- Polls
- Predictions
- Jobs
- Archive
- Magazine
- PDF edition
- RSS feeds
- Subscribe
- Special supplements
- Stockists

















4 comments
Old Labour.
I wonder out of which side of her mouth Hattie speaks when she defends the status quo with the UK's electorial system and criticises the same system?
The system is already baised to Labour e.g. through the size of constituencies and distribution of voters. Basically, it seems only those changes to the system that benefit Labour are fair.
Was Hattie involved in suppressing the publication the Labour MP's detailed expense records? Was the ploy to only publish high level summary figures for MPs without the details on expense forms? The Torygraph ended up publishing MPs expense details for the public interest.
Would Hattie be top of the list of people to ask about whats best for anti-corruption and democracy in the UK?
A huge congratulations to Sarah Petrie, the young lady who led yesterdays singing at the close of conference. Both herself and the two others were clearly nervous, but had nothing to worry about - truly superb singing :D
I still wonder why the won't sing the rather... bloody bits of Red flag though?
Oh Harriet!
if Labour thought individual voter registration was such a bad idea why did
Ed Miliband put it in the Labour Manifesto which he wrote, and encouraged MP's to back it with written evidence to parliament just 3 weeks ago-
Quite outrageous even for you Harriet!
I should also like to point out to you Harriet and you weak leader that the constituency boundery review is designed to make the total electorate for each constituency relatively similar across the country, wich will be more fair, with less mp's who will work harder,More fair harriet, More un- labour! Hope The Prime Minister will also deal with the dodgy postal voting system also, And please go away you are no longer the goverment.
Oh Harriet!
if Labour thought individual voter registration was such a bad idea why did
Ed Miliband put it in the Labour Manifesto which he wrote, and encouraged MP's to back it with written evidence to parliament just 3 weeks ago-
Quite outrageous even for you Harriet!
I should also like to point out to you Harriet and you weak leader that the constituency boundery review is designed to make the total electorate for each constituency relatively similar across the country, wich will be more fair, with less mp's who will work harder,More fair harriet, More un- labour! Hope The Prime Minister will also deal with the dodgy postal voting system also, And please go away you are no longer the goverment.
Post new comment