Policy Exchange at Party Conferences 2024

Labour Party Conference 2024

Monday 23rd September 12:15 - 13:15

Galvanising Green Growth – How can the Government and Business better work together to ensure that decarbonisation of the built environment drives the UK’s growth ambitions?

Arena Room 1, ACC

Melanie Onn MP

Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby and Cleesthorpe

Mark Caskey

Managing Director of Projects, Mitie Group plc

Tim Lord

Head of Climate, HSBC UK

Ryan Jude

Cabinet Member, Westminster City Council

Josh Buckland (Chair)

Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby and Cleesthorpe

In partnership with

Monday 23rd September 13:30 - 14:30

The Future of the Left

Arena Room 1, ACC

Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Dan Carden MP

Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton

Lord Glasman

Co-Leader of Policy Exchange's 'Future of the Left' Project

Jason Cowley

Editor, New Statesman

Monday 23rd September 15:00 - 15:30

Ukraine: What Next?

Arena Room 1, ACC

Rt Hon John Healey MP

Secretary of State for Defence

Mark Urban

Writer and Columnist, The Sunday Times

In partnership with

Monday 23rd September 16:30 - 17:30

The Building Beautiful Agenda:
Is less beauty the price we have to pay for more homes?

Arena Room 1, ACC

Rt Hon John Healey MP

Secretary of State for Defence

Ben Derbyshire

Chair, HTA Design LLP; former President, Royal Institute of British Architects

Jack Shaw

Councillor, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham; Vice-Chair, Planning Committee

Nicholas Boys Smith

Founder, Create Streets; Chair, Office for Place

Ike Ijeh

Head of Housing, Architecture and Urban Space, Policy Exchange

Monday 23rd September 18:30-20:00

Labour Party Conference Drinks Reception

Located at PANAM Restaurant and Bar, Royal Albert Docks, L3 4AD.

The Honourable Stephen Smith

High Commissioner of Australia to the United Kingdom

Lord Godson

Director, Policy Exchange

Conservative Party Conference 2024

Monday 30th September 17:30-20:00

The Future of the Right
Panel Discussion & Conference Reception

Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP

Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Lord Kempsell

Senior Fellow, Policy Exchange; Former Political Director of the Conservative Party

Katie Lam MP

Member of Parliament for the Weald of Kent

Lord Moore of Etchingham

Senior Fellow, Policy Exchange; Authorised biographer of Margaret Thatcher

Lord Goodman of Wycombe

Senior Fellow, Policy Exchange; Former Editor, Conservative Home

Policy Exchange convened an expert panel for its Future of the Right event at Conservative Party Conference this year.

The panel featured former Energy Secretary Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP, newly elected MP Katie Lam, former Director of the Conservative Research Department Lord Kempsell, and Lord Moore of Etchingham, authorised biographer of Margaret Thatcher, and was chaired by Lord Goodman of Wycombe, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange. 

Claire Coutinho reflected on her time in office – highlighting that Conservatives will need a firmer idea of their convictions if they wish to deliver in government next time around. In particular, she stated the need to think about how to bring capital and ownership back within “reach” of younger generations, and for a new approach to energy and the environment, warning against the creeping statism of Net Zero: We were setting ever more prescriptive targets when it came to decarbonisation, which actually was central planning by the back door, which we know as Conservatives, doesn’t work”.

 Katie Lam argued for restoring the values of freedom to the centre of a “moral” vision for Britain, and for a smarter approach to creating a smaller state, one focused on improving public sector productivity: “Public services effectively don’t really work. You know, most of the interactions that people have with the state are very low quality. And it can’t be the case that taxes have to rise and rise and rise indefinitely just to keep our head above water. So I think we need to spend real time in our schools, in our hospitals, with our police forces working out specifically what needs to be done”.

 Lord Moore said that much could be learned from Margaret Thatcher about how to put together a coherent vision for the right: “I think those three things – the nation, the economy… and the state of the world should come to can come together. [They] did come together in a conservative way under Thatcher and Reagan and in their new guise, should be the guiding thing to bring [the right] together now”.

 In remarks that echoed those of former Canadian PM Stephen Harper in our last public Future of the Right event, Lord Kempsell also made the case that the Conservative Party will not govern again if their voting coalition continues to be split with Reform: “There is no space in the current British political system… with our first past post system at general elections, for there to be two right leaning parties that will produce a right-majority government. Historically, it has been the primary duty of Conservative Party leaders and thinkers to hold together a broad coalition of the right in this country so that we are able to win elections from the right and deliver for those voters”.

You can find a recording of the event here.
 

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