It’s a big party at Labour conference in Liverpool. During the day, politicians are being careful to make sensible speeches, but after hours, delegates dare to dream of power. The wildest bash is the Mirror karaoke party tonight, where we hear Wes Streeting has prepared a number from Grease. Keir Starmer is expected to introduce the warbling.
Sir Keir is the toast of the town, with a series of drinks with his name on offer. Last night, a Labour List party was serving “Starmertinis”. The Spectator had Keir Royales. Angela Rayner prefers something stronger: Venom, a mixture of vodka, spiced rum, WKD and orange juice.
Lisa Nandy had a busy night yesterday, first DJ’ing alongside shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire at Labour List, then at CWU. In a rousing speech to a Politics Home bash, MP Chris Bryant echoed Roy Jenkins’s line about Tony Blair in 1997 being like a man “carrying a ming vase across a slippery floor”, trying not to make a mistake before the vote. Bryant said Starmer is like a man “carrying a ming vase across a Strictly floor”, dancing as he goes. Many agree.
TV gremlins just stop Owen
Up in Liverpool during Labour conference is Guardian journalist Owen Jones. We noted mixed Tory reviews of his conference vox-popping last week, with some saying he’d been outsmarted by teenagers, but Owen didn’t take kindly to the criticism. On Twitter/X he used the word “d*ckhead” to characterise our write-up and continued to whinge until he moved on to another target. He tried to film a show yesterday live from The World Transformed festival, but technical difficulties meant delays and streaming problems. That’s a shame for his fans. Perhaps he should spend less time on Twitter? Also at TWT was Roger Hallam, the Just Stop Oil founder. He’s announced a new protest this month, a “slow march in London on an unprecedented scale”, stopping cars. But Hallam didn’t win support, repeatedly telling the crowd they were “f***ing c***s” if they didn’t help. Charming.
Malala hits clubland
The red carpet outside Royal Festival Hall was busy last night for London Film Festival. First came suave acting eminence Bill Nighy for the headline gala screening of Maestro, about composer Leonard Bernstein. Then after sunset, new talent Cailee Spaeny arrived for a showing of Priscilla, another music biopic about Elvis Presley’s wife. In Soho, artist Marina Abramovic went to the CIRCA prize announcement at the Broadwick Hotel. And singer Ellie Goulding and Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor were at an International Day of the Girl event joint hosted by Annabel’s founder Richard Caring and Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.
