Mind the gap: lessons from this year's party conferences

Back in the summer,  on paper at least, the UK’s main political parties made manifesto commitments to improve health, tackle climate change, and to do something about our broken food system. Some parties tentatively pinned their colours to the mast on the issue of meat and dairy, at least in the context of environmental concerns.

Post-election, as things shake down and the government settles in, it is the autumn conference season that provides at least an early indication of whether the parties are as good as their word. 

It is policy change at the centre of government that can set the framework for real change. Change that makes life better for animals, people and planet. And it is the wider workings of parliament – the backbench MPs, peers and committees – that formulate and scrutinise legislation, who can energise the debate over crucial and controversial issues such as meat and dairy reduction.

As an organisation, the Vegetarian Society goes to these conferences to build and maintain relationships within the political sphere. We hit the fringe events to fire questions at MPs, peers and influential panel members, and we speak to people on the ground – party activists, journalists, and fellow NGO campaigners – to understand how to better influence central policy making.

Back in June, our analysis of the election manifestos revealed that two of the Westminster parties – the Lib Dems and the Greens – had firm commitments on meat and dairy reduction and even tackling consumption levels specifically. In contrast, the two parties of power and opposition, Labour and the Conservatives, kept talk very broad, choosing to focus on manifesto  ‘support for farmers’ in a battle if not for the rural vote, then for alignment with the farming lobby.

However, the question of how issues associated with animal production and consumption might be tackled politically appeared to be kicked firmly into the long grass. The Greens’ commitment was largely to be through ‘educating the public’. The Lib Dem manifesto didn’t elaborate. Now in power, although keen to find solutions to health based on personal agency and self-care, the Labour party are remarkably studied in their rejection of anything that smacks of nanny statism.

At Labour’s party conference in Liverpool this year, the new minister for farming and food, Daniel Zeichner, was clear: he would ‘not be in the business of telling the public what to eat’. He was, though, remarkably accessible on the conference floor, and our Chief Executive Richard McIlwain held him in conversation for some time, inviting him to come speak at our forthcoming parliamentary event on plant-based policy-making, which is scheduled for mid-November. Zeichner is a man of sharp intellect who understands the need for systems-level change in food and farming. He will be a man to engage with over the coming weeks, months and years, and we firmly hope to persuade him of the key importance of a plant-based strategy within his broader policy purview.

As ever, the Conservative party conference was a stronghold of environmental policy lobbying, with CEN – the Conservative Environment Network – putting on a strong fringe programme even though the attention at the conference was chiefly on the Tory leadership race. CEN are a highly influential group, and it is rumoured that the CEN’s chair Sam Hall is set to ‘cross the floor’ and become an adviser to the Labour government on environmental and land use matters.

On our home turf in Manchester at the Green Party conference, we connected with a group of party activists keen to set up a plant-based alliance. This is an important opportunity, because although the main conference did discuss nature-friendly farming and animal welfare,  it was only in the broadest terms. The issue of dietary change is still remarkably fringe in a party advocating for otherwise highly progressive policy.

At the Lib Dems’ autumn gathering, the ranks of the Green Liberal Democrats had been swelled by the influx of new MPs. Excited at the possibilities for progressive advocacy on the environment and the new Lib Dem chairmanship of the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs select committee in the House of Commons, the party mood was buoyant, and the Vegetarian Society was delighted to be invited to speak at a forthcoming discussion on shaping food policy hosted by the Green Liberal Democrat group in the spring.

Taking our policy ideas from the fringe to the mainstream involves developing highly credible policy instruments that have broad electoral appeal: policies that make people healthier – for example, through reducing NHS waiting times – and that ultimately nudge people toward sustainable, healthier lives.  

To some extent, all political party conferences are a symbolic exercise. At present, the strength of each party’s policy position on meat and dairy reduction – and indeed animal welfare – are inversely proportional to the number of seats held in parliament. This makes relationship building and policy advocacy across the parties highly important for our policy team, and far from a simply symbolic exercise.