News
Taking our message to party conferences
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We’re deep into party conference season and working hard to push our message up the political agenda, so here are a few of our highlights so far…
Since Keir Starmer has already set out the five missions he hopes will define his premiership, we’re urging our new mission-led government to work with mission-led businesses. Alongside our partners in the Future Economy Alliance, we’ve put together a paper making the case for how our movement can help deliver the changes needed, from making Britain a clean energy superpower to building public services fit for the future and breaking down barriers to opportunity.
We’ve already handed this to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Business Secretary Johnny Reynolds, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, Business Minister Gareth Thomas and Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government Alex Norris at conference this week – but we’re just getting started, and will be taking our message to many more political decision-makers.
We also ran events including an insightful roundtable alongside Labour Business discussing the need for recognition, finance and government support to grow social enterprise. Our business breakfast at Baltic Creative CIC brought people who’ve started and supported social enterprises together to explore how the new government can unleash our sector’s full potential. We convened a lively panel with Future Economy Alliance partners, chaired by our patron Baroness Glenys Thornton, and attended lots of other events with encouraging conversations about supporting our mission-led movement.
![Labour conference montage with Alex Norris](https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/09/Labour-conference-montage-with-Alex-Norris.jpg)
Some of our highlights from Labour Party Conference
With the Liberal Democrats now a renewed force in national politics, we also attended their conference in Brighton this month. We met with several MPs – including former Social Enterprise UK member Josh Babarinde, who is now the party’s justice spokesperson and a strong advocate for our sector in parliament.
Alliance partners will be attending Conservative Party Conference this weekend, and we’ll also have a presence at the Co-operative Party’s annual gathering with an exhibition stall and sponsoring drinks at a networking reception.
Conference season is all about getting our asks to those with the power to help our sector grow, and showing how we can help them solve problems. You are key to this, so if you’ve spoken to your local MP, engaged with government departments, have suggestions to share or would like to support our continued work raising the profile of our sector with political stakeholders, please contact the team on policy@socialenterprise.org.uk.