The Labour Party is starting this conference season in its most confident mood for years – even though it still isn’t in government. It’s not just the confidence of the party’s leader as he makes demands on public spending which would previously have been dismissed, but also what MPs and activists are now calling for as they stand up at fringe meetings. They may not have won an election, but they have started to regain the political narrative, and so they are in a considerably less defensive mood than over the past few years.
Take tonight’s Open Labour fringe rally. Open Labour is a ‘soft left’ pressure group in the party, though there was nothing soft about tonight’s event. It kicked off with a passionate speech from newly-elected MP Emma Hardy. She’s part of the confidently Corbynite new intake of Labour MPs, who stood because they believed the Labour leader would win them their seats when already-elected MPs were warning that everyone would lose.
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