Reform
Last year’s Reform Conference was held in high spirits. Nigel Farage’s party had comfortable leads in every major opinion poll, and momentum was very much in their favour.
The landscape this year is very different. A summer overshadowed by controversy over the party’s finances, the distraction of the Clacton by-election, and challenges to the party from the left and the right has weakened Reform’s polling position and momentum.
The party is also facing increasing internal divisions, with Tim Montgomerie, founder of ConservativeHome and Reform activist, recently suspended from the party over his criticisms of Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf’s conduct. Farage will therefore attempt to use the conference as a chance to demonstrate a united front among the party leaders, while focusing on policy areas of comfort, such as immigration.
However, the media will likely be more interested in the internal divisions and continuing financial questions, and this could end up dominating any headlines that emerge.
Liberal Democrat
Though they have the third most seats in Parliament, the Liberal Democrats have been struggling to capitalise on their electoral success. The party has remained fairly stagnant in the polls and struggles to have much cut through in the media.
Despite this, Sir Ed Davey’s party made decent gains in both the 2025 and 2026 local elections. This has not satisfied much of the party, though, with recent rumblings of dissatisfaction with the alleged stagnation under Sir Ed.
This year’s conference will be a chance for Davey to rally his troops and try to find some sort of momentum. If this fails, some within the party could start to question if he is the person to lead them into the next general election.
Labour
Labour Conference last year began with speculation that Andy Burnham would challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership. A year on, Andy Burnham is now Labour leader and Prime Minister. The atmosphere will likely be jovial, with Burnham enjoying a moderate rise in polling and having a longer honeymoon period than his predecessor.
However, tough decisions are awaiting the new Government in various areas, including defence spending, public finances, and the North Sea. It is unlikely that these tough decisions will be made in Liverpool, but Burnham and his Cabinet will use their speeches to pitch-roll ahead of next month’s Budget. Labour backbenchers have been happy with their leader so far, aided by the fact that most of his policy announcements have been in fairly safe territory.
The challenge now is to use conference to prepare the party for what could be a tough Budget, while simultaneously trying to set out what “Burnhamism” will look like in the long-term.
Green Party
When many public affairs professionals booked their tickets to Green Party Conference a few months ago, the party had significant momentum.
Zack Polanski had instilled new life into the party, and it seemed as if Westminster could be heading to a new party system. In the months since, the momentum has slowed, particularly due to Burnham replacing Starmer as Prime Minister. Polanski therefore needs this year’s conference to invigorate his base and rebuild the momentum that has been lost.
With Polanski stating his intention to stand in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, the stakes could not be higher. If he fails to use this conference as a springboard and does not win the seat, the future electoral hopes of the Green Party look dim.
Conservative
Kemi Badenoch will be feeling fairly content heading into Conservative Conference.
Her party has seen a steady recovery in the polls, Reform is losing much of its momentum, and her frontbench reshuffle has been well-received. There are now two key challenges she faces.
The first is to move on from the past. The appointment of Andrew Griffith as shadow chancellor led to the party’s opponents highlighting his role as a Treasury minister during the shambles of Liz Truss’s mini-budget. This underscores a persistent struggle of the Conservatives to move on from their 14 years in government. Badenoch will use this conference season to claim the party has changed significantly, and explain what this means in practice.
She will hope that this will help with the second key challenge, translating polling improvements into electoral results. Despite the rise in the polls, the Conservatives are still performing poorly in by-elections, such as in the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election, where the party came in fifth.
If Badenoch wants to change this state of affairs, she will need to make the most of conference season to present her vision of a new, changed Conservative Party.
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