THIS year’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool should have been a moment of unity and renewal. After 14 years of Tory rule, we are a government with over a year back in power. People are desperate for change.

But instead of a confident celebration of Labour values, what I felt was a conference defined by frustration, division, and a growing sense that the party leadership is looking over its shoulder at Reform UK voters rather than leading boldly with a vision of its own.

I want to first celebrate one bright moment that came with the emergency motion on Gaza. Delegates overwhelmingly backed a union-supported motion that recognised Israel’s actions as genocide and committed Labour to pushing for real action: suspending arms sales, ending trade that enables violations of international law, and holding perpetrators accountable.

This was not just symbolism. It was Labour members and unions demanding that our government demonstrates its commitment to international humanitarian law, specifically its legal duty to prevent genocide, and take a stand for human rights.

The leadership tried to water it down, but conference, including unusual unity from the trade unions, voted for clarity and courage. That should be a wake-up call: our members and affiliates expect Labour to act, not just posture.

Beyond that victory, the mood was unmistakable. In previous years, there was optimism, a sense that, however difficult, Labour was marching in the right direction. This year, I saw something else: weariness, confusion, frustration. I had many delegates tell me they were struggling to recognise the party they’d campaigned for just over a year ago.

Keir Starmer’s flagship speech summed it up. The content mattered less than the choreography: Union Jacks filling the stage, flag-waving orchestrated for the cameras.

I am proud of the British people — of our shared history, struggle, and identity. But at conference, the performative flag waving was deployed in the most cynical way: props to mimic Reform UK and appease the right.

Flags don’t put food on the table, and the performative patronising of left-behind communities doesn’t win voters; it pushes them towards Reform by failing to provide an alternative. The Labour leadership has taken straight from the playbook of the far right, using flags as symbols to divide people, to mark out who belongs and who does not.

National pride should come from solidarity — from working-class communities standing together, black and white, north and south, migrant and settled. The people of Liverpool know this truth deeply. If Labour reduces patriotism to flag-waving photo ops, we’ve lost the moral ground to the very forces we should be challenging.

That unease deepened with the priorities ballot. Motions to support families — especially ending the cruel two-child benefit cap — were not selected. We are hearing talk of the cap being watered down to a three- or four-child limit.

This is honestly disheartening. We know, and every serious study continues to show, that full removal would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. Anything less is just tinkering around the edges, and will leave child poverty higher at the end of this Labour government — a first in history.

And once again, a chance to support the Orgreave justice campaign was missed. For decades, campaigners have fought to expose the truth about what happened to miners in 1984. Their struggle is part of Labour’s own story — yet conference turned its face away. This is not how you rebuild trust with working-class communities who feel abandoned and betrayed.

Adding to the frustrations were rule changes that chip away at internal democracy. The abolition of CLP observers at Labour group meetings cuts transparency between local members and councillors. The centralisation of Young Labour, where branch approvals are now subject to HQ, weakens youth voices. The decision to sideline the women’s conference and the failure to allow Bame and disabled structures to function properly strips representation from those who need it most.

These are not minor tweaks. They are deliberate steps to reduce accountability and tighten central control. A party that silences its own members (and journalists) cannot credibly promise to renew democracy in the country.

And yet — away from the main stage, I saw real energy, passion and hope. Fringes were buzzing with purpose, with packed rooms for union meetings and grassroots gatherings. Delegates talking not in soundbites but in struggles — wages, safety, justice, and climate.

It is clear to me that the left of the party is the only place where a real strategy for renewal exists. Not the politics of caution and calculation, but the politics of courage. Ending the two-child cap. Kickstarting the rebuilding of council housing. Standing with workers in struggle. Defending international law. Restoring party democracy.

That is how our party wins back not just votes but trust — with a transformative agenda that speaks to people’s lived experience, not to the polling focus groups of Westminster.

I left conference with mixed emotions: proud of the Gaza motion, proud of the solidarity I saw in the fringes, but deeply troubled by the direction from the platform. The leadership is pandering to Reform voters with flag-waving while ignoring the very policies that could tackle poverty, inequality and injustice at home.

Our party faces a choice. We can continue down a path of appeasement, division and hollow symbolism. Or we can return to our roots: a movement of solidarity, hope and transformation.

For me, the answer is clear. The left must keep organising, keep demanding, keep offering the proper alternative. Because that’s not just the path to winning elections — it’s the only way to make them matter. Now is the time to educate, organise and agitate — for justice, for democracy, and for the Labour Party our communities deserve.

Kim Johnson is MP for Liverpool Riverside.