Conservative and Labour party conferences: key policy takeaways

After a busy conference season, five IfG policy experts round up what this year's events – Labour's in Liverpool, then the Conservatives' in Birmingham – tell us about the two main parties' policies on the economy, levelling up, net zero, the civil service and standards in public life.

There are now clear dividing lines on the economy

The economy has been front and centre of this conference season with Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-budget’ held just before the Labour conference got underway.

Set-piece speeches majored on growth and – unsurprisingly – both parties agree it should be a priority for government. But the conferences presented starkly different visions of how it should be delivered. At Labour, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves emphasised the importance of industrial strategy and government investment to assist the transition to net zero. In contrast, Liz Truss’s vision for her premiership was for low taxes and supply-side reforms. This has established a clear dividing line between the two parties and indicates markedly different economic strategies.

Reeves also sought to make fiscal credibility a dividing line by pointedly re-affirming her support for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and committing to stick to her fiscal rules. Kwarteng’s subsequent U-turn over the 45p tax rate and his confirmation that the government would bring forward a ‘medium-term fiscal plan’, accompanied by an OBR forecast, was an attempt to claw back some government credibility in this area.

Markets have stabilised a little in response to the government's announcements, but attention now turns to the upcoming details of supply-side reforms and the fiscal plan and what these will tell us about how the tax cuts already announced will be consistent with stable public finances in the medium term.

Gemma Tetlow, chief economist

Levelling up is in a state of flux

The Conservative Party conference heightened the impression that the last government’s pledge to “level up” the country has slipped down the priority list since Liz Truss became prime minister. One IfG fringe event saw Paul Scully, a minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, emphasise that levelling up was still in his department’s name and still a government priority. But a continuation of the slogan does not mean a continuation of approach. The only mentions of the government’s Levelling Up white paper, which set out the Johnson administration’s approach to tackling regional inequalities, came from former levelling up secretary Michael Gove in various fringe events; the architect of that plan, Gove now sits on the backbenches.

Scully’s emphasis on the investment zones announced in the mini-budget as a major Truss levelling up policy could indicate a change in approach. Reducing regulation and cutting taxes to drive regional growth is however a different strategy to the various government interventions on skills, infrastructure and other policies including 'innovation' laid out in the white paper.

Meanwhile, at Labour’s conference the city mayors – and especially Andy Burnham of Greater Manchester – drew big crowds at any fringe event they attended. Their message was consistent: that further devolution was necessary to level up, and that a future Labour manifesto should include commitments on this front, though this theme did not feature heavily in the set piece speeches from Rachel Reeves or Keir Starmer.

Thomas Pope, deputy chief economist

Labour is trying to seize the initiative on net zero

While it was overshadowed by the government drama, Keir Starmer’s green energy pivot may be looked back on as one the more significant conference stories. Against the backdrop of an energy crisis, Starmer made clear that “a greener, fairer future” would form a central part of his pitch for economic renewal at the next election. Speakers at our Labour event on climate election lessons suggested this was in line with the priorities of most UK voters, although they thought both main parties still had work to do to develop policies and messages that would reassure voters worried about high energy bills.

The ‘rabbit’ in Starmer’s speech – the creation of Great British Energy, a publicly owned green energy company – was designed to symbolise this shift. Conveniently it also put to bed questions about a much more disruptive and risky programme of renationalising existing companies. In contrast, Truss mentioned net zero just once in her speech and was keener to emphasise energy security and new gas licenses. Any reference to fracking had been cut – a sign of the strength of backbench opposition. Meanwhile business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg used his fringe appearances to confirm his support for offshore and nuclear power.

Tom Sasse, associate director

The performance of the civil service remains central to political debate

It was positive to see engagement with the performance, standing and accountability of the civil service reflected in well-attended events and discussion at both party conferences.

At the Conservatives’, ministers and delegates at IfG events were focused on the accountability of permanent secretaries and other senior officials, the purpose of the civil service and how to get the most out of it. Some contributors recognised the need to value the civil service while pushing for reform. Lord Maude said that “we have some fantastic civil servants but we don’t… make life easy for them” while pressing hard for more central authority on the running of the civil service, and more skilled ministers better able to hold officials to account. Foreign Office minister Gillian Keegan wanted more clarity about who the customers of government are and reminded us that “policy without delivery is just paper”. Everyone wanted to address excessive staff (and ministerial) churn.

Meanwhile the Labour conference was that of a party serious about governing, and therefore serious about the civil service. Potential future ministers and advisers are beginning to think about how they would want to organise the bureaucracy, and get the civil service to work for them. Our Labour panellists, Meg Hillier, Hilary Benn and Margaret Hodge, were focused on getting the civil service to be more confident about speaking truth to power – the test will be whether that holds if their party finds itself in government.

Alex Thomas, civil service programme director

Standards in public life remain a hot topic

With Boris Johnson’s premiership brought down by a failure to uphold ethical standards in government and enforce rules on ministers’ and MPs’ behaviour, the subject of standards was unsurprisingly a hot topic at the Labour conference.

At our event, Chris Bryant and Thangam Debonnaire both criticised the government and said that, in office, Labour would take the issue seriously. The audience also agreed that standards was an opportunity for the opposition to create distance between them and the government (before the gap in the polls started to widen for other reasons).

In Birmingham, there was also a high degree of interest in standards – a packed room heard Jeremy Wright MP talk about the importance of the government implementing the latest recommendations of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (of which he is a member). There were questions from the audience about how civil servants can be held more accountable for their work and whether there are cultural issues in the civil service that need tackling as much as those in politics. But there was also agreement that leadership from ministers – particularly the prime minister – is key to ensuring that government meets the standards the public expects.

Tim Durrant, associate director