Suddenly, young people are excited about Labour again – and this is why

But at my first-ever party conference, I was struck by something more specific: just how much of the energy, language, and politics of the week seemed to be aimed at, and shaped by, young people.

Perhaps it helped that Andy Burnham — and Labour — now have a new crew of Zoomers.

I have written about them for The New World before –  the Gen Z TikTokers who helped catapult Burnham’s popularity amongst the youth, were then conscripted to help him win in Makerfield, and were even present when he entered No 10. 

The ‘BuzzBallettes’, as some accounts online have nicknamed them, were at conference too. The nickname, usually used in a derogatory fashion, is a reference both to the time Burnham signed their BuzzBall alcoholic drinks in an Ashton pub, which subsequently went viral, and to the fact that they are almost all women in their late teens and early twenties.

Their video edits, which began as Labour Party history and light-hearted fan edits of politicians, have evolved into videos promoting government policy, regularly attracting hundreds of thousands of views.

This growing prominence, particularly for Ellen Stewart, who has appeared on LBC and spoke at a Fabian Society panel at this year’s conference about political communications in the modern age, has come at a price. Several of the young women have faced misogynistic abuse and even threats online. It has not, however, seemed to diminish either their enthusiasm or their appetite for getting stuck in.

I watched the leader’s speech with them. As Gen Z often do, they arrived mere minutes before it was due to begin, by which point most of the seats had been occupied by old fogeys (among them The New World political editor James Ball). Undeterred, they simply sat on the stairs.

Throughout the speech, some were messaging friends in the hall asking for footage of Burnham to use in their edits. Others were frantically making notes for future videos. One idea I saw written down, verbatim, was:

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“14:10 10 weeks into job not all predecessors can say that / crank ittttttt – mute on Liz”

It may not make much — okay, any — sense to you, dear reader. But it illustrates something important. Political communication has changed, and Labour appears to have understood that.

I see the effect among my own friends. People who would normally have little interest in policy announcements send me No 10 videos, excited about something the government has just done. That enthusiasm travels in both directions, because the public’s excitement feeds back into the atmosphere around the party, which you could certainly feel at conference.

Take this real text from my brother, who is from and lives in Liverpool: “Whole city seems to be buzzing. I have a bit of FOMO over all the conference stuff. Imagine me saying that the last time they were here!”

Burnham’s speech itself, widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, in recent political history, also contained an unusually clear focus on younger people.

There was the Your First Home scheme, acknowledging how difficult it has become for young people to get onto the housing ladder; the focus on NEETs; and, though it may not initially sound like a youth issue, the reform of the triple lock. The combination of all this has caused under-25s online to behave as though they are living through the liberation of France in WWII.

“1,000 years of Burnham,” some declared, celebrating what they see as the end of the “pensioner hegemony” over this country. When older people complain online, young people have responded with jokes about cutting back on their P&O cruises and Werther’s Originals — a generational inversion of the familiar response to young people struggling with the cost of living: cancel Netflix, stop buying takeaway coffee and you’ll be fine.

The theme of Labour’s conference, of course, was “hope again”. You knew this because it was almost impossible to walk around the conference without having the slogan forced upon your eyeballs. 

But when Burnham spoke about his ambitions for younger people, and acknowledged the uniquely difficult position in which many of us find ourselves, he said he wanted to give us  “hope again”. It was the second-to-last time he used the phrase in the speech, which felt significant.

And there was evidence of this generational awareness everywhere. When I first wrote about “doomscrolling” in this paper, I had to explain what it meant. But now, the prime minister says it on stage, and so did Maurice Glasman at a panel, which I never thought I’d say. 

On another panel I watched, with Alan Milburn, it was pointed out that John Healey had mentioned Milburn’s report five times in his chancellor’s speech. Afterwards, I asked Milburn to confirm my suspicion: had there been more emphasis on young people at this year’s conference?

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“Without a doubt,” he said.

Was that because of his report, I asked? He was modest and denied that he had directly influenced the government, but said that “it’s an issue that people are waking up to because it just can’t be ignored anymore. We can’t afford to ignore it.

“And it used to be happening only to those left behind in the care system, or from really disadvantaged backgrounds. Other people’s kids. But now it’s everyone’s kids.”

The sense that something has gone badly wrong for younger people has been building for years. What was striking about this conference was that it felt as though the government had finally recognised that this is no longer a fringe issue that can be dealt with through the occasional focus group. It is inherently a mainstream political problem.

And perhaps that is why the atmosphere felt so different.

The youthfulness of conference was not simply about a few TikTokers running around making edits. It was about the sense that the problems facing my generation had moved closer to the centre of political conversation — and that, in turn, had given young people a reason to be interested in politics beyond simply complaining about it online.

It was refreshing to see the energy and vigour surrounding conference, too. During Dawn Butler’s rave at the venue Camp and Furnace, which I frequented as a teenager, I went to the smoking area. You could have mistaken it for one at a university nightclub.

It should also go on record as the Scousest Labour Party conference on record. Yes, obviously, it was in Liverpool. But the Merseyside-born leader walked on stage to the Scouse anthem All Together Now by The Farm, Metro mayor Steve Rotheram quoted John Lennon, and Harold Wilson — whose old seat was Huyton — adorned the official party shop. Maybe I’m biased, but it was refreshing and rang true to Burnham’s promises to celebrate every part of this country. 

So continue as you have gone on, Andy. Keep fighting for us. Keep indulging our obsession with short-form videos. 

And, most importantly, keep your word to give us hope again. I think you’ve already started.