UCL Policy Lab party conference season 2024: respect agenda and much more

Sir Keir Starmer promised to run a government that has “respect” for ordinary people in his first speech as Prime Minister at the Labour Party conference.

It was a proposal that drew on many argument made at the UCL Policy Lab over the last few months and also a theme which ran through the whole of the UCL Policy Lab conference season programme this year.

The Prime Minister’s address clearly echoed themes that we set out in Ordinary Hope: A Mission to Rebuild, published at the beginning of conference season and featured in Andrew Marr's pre-conference cover story for the New Statesman, and in our earlier publication Ordinary Hope: A New Way of Changing Our Country Together. 

It was also a theme prominent in our Respect Agenda report, with More in Common, which sets out why focusing on respect in this way can build coalitions to deliver lasting change—change that was demanded by the voters we spoke to for our post-election Change Pending report.

All of this was reinforced too, by the nonpartisan Britain Renewed Reception on Monday night in Liverpool, organised by the UCL Policy Lab, This Day, and Future Governance Forum. In an evening of celebration, we recognised the extraordinary creativity and power of people across the country and explored how we renew the country together. With speeches from senior politicians like Ed Miliband MP and Shabana Mahmood MP, citizen campaigner Lesley Penton of the Citizens UK Liverpool chapter, and playwright James Graham, we heard about those working in communities across Britain to help meet the challenges we face and take the first steps in a programme of national renewal. It was prominently covered in the Daily Mirror following conference.

The UCL Policy Lab continued these discussions at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. As the Conservative leadership contest was at its height, the Lab hosted a discussion on the politics of respect featuring Prof Alan Renwick, of the Constitution Unit, alongside senior Conservatives, including former mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street and former minister, Steve Baker.

The UCL Policy Lab will be continuing to explore these themes in the weeks ahead, including a roundtable on how the politics of respect can help governments around the world defeat the rise of populism and anti-democratic forces.