Behind the scenes at the Labour Party Conference with Alexander Brown
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00:00Hello and welcome to Labour Conference. My name is Alexander Brown. I'm the
00:04Scotsman's Westminster Correspondent and I'm here in a packed ACC where behind me
00:10there are booths, there are stalls of people trying to lobby, people getting
00:14signed up to petitions. Behind me you can probably see they're filming politics
00:18live. They're filming all sorts of things here as Labour Conference gets underway.
00:22To be here really, as everyone I've spoken to has said, is to be tired and
00:27dehydrated. Everyone says they're thirsty because they've all been out too late.
00:31Meetings start at 8 a.m. for many ministers or MPs or staffers going to
00:35fringes. I myself went to one at the humble time of 9 o'clock and at the same
00:40time there are drinks, receptions and events we have to lobby and mingle that
00:44go on well till, you know, midnight if not later, which at my age is frankly too
00:49late. Yesterday I went to a reception for IPPR with the Labour Together, a very
00:54influential star-mighted think-tank. There were speeches from five ministers and you
00:58think that sounds really glamorous. Wow, speeches from five ministers. It was a
01:01Revolucion de la Cuba, which is essentially a club that you would have
01:05chosen not to go to when you're a student. At least that's my, you know, frame
01:09of reference. It's not good. It's a very strange vibe here. When you speak to MPs
01:13the mood is kind of one of joy but also ambivalence. I haven't spoken to anyone
01:18who's particularly excited about conference and thrilled to be talking
01:20about policy and thrilled to be getting into what this government can deliver
01:24because they're not sure it can deliver it. They're just, they're worried, there
01:28are anxieties here, there are concerns the party's not going far enough but also
01:31hesitant to say so because they have won a historic majority. They are in such a
01:35fantastic place compared to the doldrums of previous years. I came to Tory, not
01:40Tory conferences, I've been there. I came to Labour conference in the Corbyn years
01:44and they could barely fill out this. They could barely find enough people to come
01:47here. They didn't use that much of the ACC centre. Now they've got more rooms
01:52and more space of it than ever before because there's so much business here.
01:55There are so many lobbyists here because Labour has the capacity to do whatever it
01:58wants. It has a sweeping majority and can deliver change. It's just when you speak
02:03to people here they're not sure how that change is going. And what actually are
02:07the sights of conference? What can you do here? Well I'm gonna move the camera and
02:10I'll show you a little bit more of what's available to buy at conference if
02:13you're so inclined, which you shouldn't be. As you can see behind me is one of
02:17Labour's merch stores where you can buy t-shirts £25, towels for a tenner,
02:22blankets, mugs that say the ballot box on it, there's key cards, there's just all
02:27these different things that I don't necessarily know anyone would want.
02:29There's water bottles and they're everywhere. They're all throughout the
02:33centre. Essentially you come to a conference, if you come as a member,
02:36you're a sporter, you've paid to come here and then we get some little
02:38merchandise to further top up the party's coffers. Not that they need it,
02:42though perhaps maybe they do to get Keir's clothes now that he's no longer
02:44accepting free ones. It's a real perverse thing about conference. There's lots of
02:48merchandise. You can get free tote bags at events, free pens, but for supporters this is
02:53a chance to kind of celebrate a win and those who've been coming here for so
02:56many years haven't had that many wins to celebrate. Buying a celebratory mug,
03:00buying a t-shirt, buying a tea towel, buying a pen, buying paper. These are just
03:04things that no one necessarily needs but it's like a little memento to kind of celebrate
03:07that you were here for the first Labour Conference of Government. I know you're
03:11thinking, well I've got the merchandise, what's it like outside? Is it nice weather?
03:14Is it lovely to be there around centre? What's it look like when you come in? Well, we'll go and do that now and I'm going to have to possibly get an umbrella because it's absolutely miserable.
03:22We're now at the very entrance to the centre. Once you've got through security, where they will go through your bag,
03:27sip your bottle to make sure that's water you've got with you and not acid. You then come through here and you're greeted, as you go in through the section,
03:34with a cacophony of cameras everywhere, pundits all there waiting and broadcasting
03:40so they can show you that they're here, they're at Labour Conference and there's little
03:43lights and MPs you've never heard of giving their views and telling you what's happened
03:47because this is their moment, this is their long-awaited moment. To our right, just here, out of shot,
03:52is the Portman Hotel where, after hours, you've gone to reception, you've had a few too many white wines,
03:57you go in there and you have a drink because you're still in the confines of the conference centre.
04:01So you don't have to take your pass off, which you have to do when you leave for safety reasons,
04:05and you can just hang out. It's miserable but there's a lovely little bit there to protect you from the rain.
04:10I'm not here, I'm getting wet. I don't know if it's adding layering to my hair if it's making it look worse
04:13but I guess we'll find out when this goes out.
04:16What else to say about the Pullman? It's also, crucially, where Keir Starmer, ministers
04:21and the more senior people stay during their time at conference.
04:25So there's police, as you can see in shot, there's also police on every corner, at every entrance
04:30because this is a secure zone and so it's very fancy in there, there's nice dinners.
04:34I've had breakfast there once, it wasn't particularly good but it was particularly expensive.
04:39That's it really, that's conference. There's lots of merchandise,
04:42there's lots of people who've got some policies that I'm not going to talk about,
04:45there's lots of people desperate for jobs, there's lots of people desperate to further their own agendas
04:49and there's lots of people who are just getting really, really wet, running between places
04:53for the first Labour conference to have the party in government for more years than anyone can remember.
05:00For all that and more, stay tuned to thescotsman.com.