Andy Burnham’s Conference Speech: history man, Unions, Co-Ops ( but Manchester also saw the birth of the world’s first working class political party)
On 29th September Andy Burnham delivered his first speech as Labour leader and PM to the Labour Conference.
One line referenced labour history
The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in.
A union of nations that gave trade unions and the cooperative movement to the world.
Is he right here?
In respect of the Co-Operative movement (Rochdale 1844) almost certainly yes. On trade unions there may be room for question. The TUC was formed in 1868 but unions existed well before that, the Grand Consolidated Trade Union of the early 1830s for example. The wider issue is whether unions also existed in other places. That requires some research
What Burnham missed, puzzingly, was that Britain saw the birth of the world’s first working class political party, the National Charter Association, in Ancoats in Manchester in July 1840.
Ir was not a direct antecedent of the Labour Party but the idea that there should be a working class political party was born in Manchester.
Andy Burnham’s speech to Labour Party Conference 2026 – The Labour Party
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