Reflection on Labour’s Conference – Leadership and Distraction

Reflection on Labour’s Conference – Leadership and Distraction

Yesterday, I received a phone call from a resident who asked me for my thoughts on the current Labour leadership. Having followed the Labour conference over the last few days, I have to say I was left disappointed.

It is important to recognise that Labour being led on two fronts: in Westminster by Keir Starmer, and here in Wales by Eluned Morgan as leader in the Senedd, and that from both levels of leadership, what we saw this week was the same pattern — speech after speech littered with references to Nigel Farage and Reform.

So frequent were the mentions that it seemed to me that Labour have inadvertently become Reform’s biggest cheerleaders. If anything, they gave more oxygen to Farage than to their own plans. Instead of clarity on policy, it was diversionary tactics, pointing elsewhere to mask shortcomings at home.

The First Minister of Wales repeated the very same pattern, and Morgan — when speaking about the upcoming Senedd elections in 2026 — once more wielded the “threat” of Reform as though it was the central issue, rather than addressing the real concerns of Wales. This is what I recognised as a distractive technique of a party in decline — the dying breath of a movement that has lost direction.

It reminded me of The 48 Laws of Power, particularly Law 39: “Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish.” Greene explains that when a leader is losing control, they often resort to creating agitation, picking fights, and distracting people with enemies real or imagined, in order to draw focus away from their own weaknesses. That is exactly the pattern we are witnessing — the deflection of a party no longer confident in its own offer, using others as the focus in order to avoid scrutiny of itself.

For me, leadership should be about honesty, vision and solutions. From my work with residents and communities, I know people aren’t fooled by political theatre. They want substance on cost-of-living, jobs, housing and the future. They deserve better than distraction.

This conference has confirmed to me that, on both a UK and Welsh level, Labour lacks the courage to make their own case honestly and directly. Until they move beyond using Reform as a convenient shadow, they will remain trapped in a politics of distraction rather than delivery.

The impression is not of a party preparing for the future, but of one clinging on by turning every conversation towards others. That may buy them headlines today, but it won’t build the trust the public expects tomorrow.