What did we learn from the Labour and Conservative party conferences? | You Ask The Questions
As we near the end of party conference season, chief political commentator John Rentoul answers your questions on what the Labour and Conservative party conferences revealed to us.With a general election scheduled for some time next year, can Labour’s Keir Starmer maintain his lead over Rishi Sunak’s Tories? And could Sunak’s war against imaginary recycling bins be an election winner?Watch more episodes of You Ask The Questions now on Independent TV - across desktop, mobile and connected TV devices.
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00:00 Hi, I'm John Rental, the Independent's chief political commentator.
00:04 And the Independent asked you for your questions about the recent Conservative and Labour Party
00:08 conferences.
00:09 Here's what you asked.
00:17 Craig Tribe asked, "Why do you think the Tory party is having to concoct false legislation
00:24 which they intend to outlaw?
00:26 I refer to meat taxes and the seven bin rule."
00:30 Well that's a very good question.
00:33 I think those questions, I mean obviously the Labour Party is not proposing a meat tax
00:38 or seven recycling bins, but they are symbolic of an attitude and I think the Conservative
00:46 Party is trying to paint Labour as eco-zealots, as Rishi Sunak calls them.
00:53 Trying to scare voters into thinking that a Labour government, although it doesn't actually
00:58 have those proposals, it does have an instinct to introduce costly climate change policies
01:07 that the voters don't agree with.
01:09 Now you could say it's an underhand tactic and the Labour Party make a huge fuss about
01:13 it and say we're not proposing any such thing, but I think that still gets the message across.
01:18 It's a bit of a Brexit style tactic to put an untrue claim out there which nevertheless
01:29 represents something that the voters care about.
01:32 Real European asks, "How much influence do the National Conservatives have in the ideology
01:38 of the Conservative Party?"
01:39 He's referring to Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, who spoke at a conference called
01:46 National Conservatism, which was a very sort of Trumpian, American style, nationalist agenda,
01:56 very much aimed at controlling immigration.
01:58 Now Suella Braverman has had her issues with immigration.
02:03 She fell out with Liz Truss because Liz Truss realised that we do need immigration in order
02:08 to keep the economy going and Suella Braverman was trying to restrict it.
02:14 So that argument continues in the Conservative Party, but I'm not sure that Suella Braverman's
02:21 thinking has that much purchase.
02:24 I think what you might call nationalist conservatism is only a minority among the party membership.
02:32 I mean it was interesting that Liz Truss won, but she won on a platform of tax cuts rather
02:39 than anti-immigration.
02:41 So I'm not sure that the Conservative Party is actually going to go wholeheartedly in
02:45 that direction.
02:46 Geza asks, "Why are the Tories not talking about housing?
02:49 We're the worst country in the modern world when it comes to finding an affordable home."
02:54 Now that is a very good question.
02:56 It was noticed that Rishi Sunak's conference speech didn't mention housing except in passing
03:04 he talked about how the new Euston end of the high speed two line would be financed
03:11 by property developers and possibly including some housing.
03:16 But presumably he's talking there about luxury flats.
03:19 That's not the issue.
03:21 And Keir Starmer on the other hand was praised to the skies for his proposals to build more
03:30 houses to set a target which is actually the same as the Conservative Party target, but
03:37 Keir Starmer says he means it.
03:40 I'm a bit sceptical about that, but it certainly went down extremely well in the hall and I
03:44 think it'll go down well with the voters.
03:46 Apache asks, "Will the Labour Party abolish leasehold?"
03:51 Now that's a technical question.
03:55 Michael Gove was very serious about trying to abolish leasehold which produces all sorts
03:59 of injustices and problems.
04:02 But it is an incredibly complex legal minefield and in the end the Conservative government
04:09 gave up.
04:10 I suspect a Labour government would not want to get bogged down in that kind of difficulty.
04:17 So I'm afraid I think leasehold tenure of flats is going to stay.
04:24 I think there are more important issues in housing that need to be addressed.
04:28 Dave the Cat says, "Why did I" - that's me, John Rental - "prefer a Tory government in
04:35 2019 rather than a Labour government?"
04:37 It's not strictly a question about the party conferences, but I'm absolutely happy to defend
04:44 my writing at the time.