San Francisco Frontiers - UK Labour party meets buoyed by Burnham but eager for concrete plans

The former mayor of Manchester has injected new life into the centre-left party since MPs elevated him to Downing Street in July after ending Keir Starmer's two-year premiership.

Burnham's higher personal approval ratings, coupled with difficulties facing rival hard-right Reform UK, have helped Labour enter the conference ahead in some opinion polls, a sharp turnaround from the start of 2026.

"I think the mood will be buoyant," Labour MP Paula Barker said of the four-day gathering in the northwestern English city of Liverpool.

"Things are moving in a better direction than the last two years," she told AFP.

Last year's Labour conference was overshadowed by talk that Starmer's days were numbered, while the 2024 edition followed criticism of several government policy decisions made soon after the party won that year's election.

Since becoming prime minister on July 20, just weeks after returning to parliament following a nine-year absence, Burnham has sought to give voters some "breathing space" from cost-of-living pressures exacerbated by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

He has cut electricity bills, capped bus fares, and reduced business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues.

Those measures, together with Burnham's active social-media presence, have helped strengthen his public image.

Surveys suggest that almost half of Britons view him favourably.

Burnham has also set up a "No. 10 North" office in Manchester as part of his plans to spur GDP by devolving more powers to cities and regions.

But he has said little about how he plans to fulfil pledges to end rough sleeping by homeless people, reform a ballooning welfare bill, fund a new social care service, reindustrialise the country and raise defence spending.

- 'Underlying anxiety' -

Former minister Tony McNulty, who served alongside Burnham in Labour governments of the early 2000s, told AFP the premier must start fleshing out a promised "10-year plan for Britain" during his keynote speech at the conference on Tuesday.

"Much of it might still be broad brushstrokes but he needs to start the process of putting meat on the bone.

"It needs to go beyond the TikTok and good vibes stuff," he said.

Labour MP Alex Sobel told AFP he wants to hear "what we'll do to support" young people in terms of opportunities.

Some 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 are not in employment, training or education, statistics show.

Burnham has limited fiscal flexibility because of Labour's election-winning manifesto commitments to not raise income tax, national insurance contributions or value-added tax.

It makes finance minister John Healey's first budget on October 28 a difficult one.

Burnham told interviewers Friday that he would not call an early election before the required date of August 2029 to remove those red lines.

"All of this speculation on an early election, I can knock that dead," he told ITV.

Burnham said he wanted to focus on helping the public feel "a bit of hope in their lives again" and would use Tuesday's speech to "say further about the direction I want to take the country".

A YouGov poll published Thursday put support for Labour at 24 percent and Reform on 22 percent, a dramatic turnaround from last year when Nigel Farage's anti-immigrant group enjoyed double-digit leads.

If an election were held tomorrow, Labour would lose its majority but would likely be able to lead a progressive coalition, the survey suggested.

"There's still an underlying anxiety about how long ... (Labour's) bounce will last given the very tricky fiscal situation the government is in," political scientist Tim Bale told AFP.

"And the fact that Labour is still a long way off the 30 percent or so that's the minimum needed to ... win an election."

H.Reyes--SFF