Wednesday was the final day of the Labour Conference at Liverpool. The delayed vote on plans to scrap the winter fuel allowance for most pensioners finally took place with a powerful speech by Unite GS Sharon Graham. After some deliberation on the platform the motion was rightly declared as carried. Keir Starmer underlined that such votes were not binding on Party policy. Such a position by a Labour leader is ,far from being new, traditional. Harold Wilson in the 1960s made it clear that conference was free to pass what it wanted just as he was free to continue with the policies he wanted.
There has been at least one occasion however when a vote at Labour Conference became immediate policy:
Tony Benn Diary Monday 2nd October Labour Party Conference Blackpool
There was an overwhelming vote against smoking at the Conference, so that was the end of my pipe
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