RUMOURS of the death of the Labour left have been greatly exaggerated.

That’s what Leeds East MP Richard Burgon is keen to get across when I meet him at Labour conference.

Keir Starmer has had a conference dominated by partial defeat on rule changes, an embarrassing shadow cabinet resignation exposing his meanness on wages and sick pay during a pandemic, repeated victories for left-wing motions on the conference floor from nationalising energy to solidarity with Palestine that the party leader had tried to squash and the possible disaffiliation of one of the party’s founding trade unions.

Is it a humiliation? 

“Yes, and a completely unnecessary one. He chose to go into a Labour Party conference in the midst of a public health conference with this arcane rule-wrangling.

“He’s made the Labour leadership look completely out of touch and irrelevant to people’s needs.”

Burgon ridicules Peter Mandelson’s claim that “millions and millions of people in this country understand what these rule changes are about” and are “cheering Keir on” in his bid to get them through.

“The idea that anybody thinks the priority of the Labour leadership in a crisis like this should be by what means the leader should be chosen is just complete nonsense.

“Obviously it makes the leader look weak but what interests me more is what we’ve seen this week of the strength of the left delegates, the strength of the left unions.

“The activists who are winning debates, winning votes, winning policy positions — that’s very encouraging indeed.”

But is the leadership going to honour those policies won at conference? 

“The Labour Party conference is sovereign. It makes party policy. The leadership has a duty to implement the policy decided on by conference, especially when these policies chime with the promises that Keir made to the members in his leadership election.”

There have been some major concessions to the left from the leadership on policy, most prominently the new deal on rights at work launched by Angela Rayner on the first day of conference — though attendees at an Institute of Employment Rights fringe meeting addressed by Andy McDonald, his last public engagement as shadow secretary of state for employment rights before his bombshell resignation — were in no doubt that it was McDonald and his team, together with labour law experts from the institute including John Hendy QC and Professor Keith Ewing, who worked on the policies.

Are these bids by the leadership to bribe the left into passivity? 

“I think it’s evidence of the fantastic work done by the affiliated unions, the work done by Andy who was a superb shadow minister, the work of the Institute of Employment Rights.

“I pay tribute to them, and to the Labour Party members who have kept up the pressure for these sorts of policies. To the unions that have pushed this new deal at the TUC. 

“It’s fantastic to see so many different unions fighting back, that way we can see battles being won in the here and now even under a Tory government. And that applies to policy too.

“One example is the FBU which played an absolutely crucial role in the Green New Deal that was adopted as policy this week, Matt Wrack’s address was for me one of the most powerful of the whole conference.”

Burgon’s optimism is contagious after what has felt like 18 months of pain for the left, but I point out that there are just as many negatives from this conference.

What about the expulsion of Leah Levane of Jewish Voice for Labour, turned away at the door? What hope can he offer to the thousands of members being purged, the tens of thousands who have quit because of the party’s crackdowns on democracy and harassment of activists?

“There has been a real project of demoralisation and members have been treated with contempt.

“And that has meant a big reduction in the number of members. But I think the fact that we are winning these votes on these key issues shows that fighting back works. 

“If you leave the party to teach the leadership a lesson, I’d say they do draw a conclusion from that which is to keep behaving like that. They want the left members out. The demoralisation is deliberate, it’s meant to make people walk away.

“But there is huge anger. As far as I’m aware there’s never been an actual card vote on whether to approve the appointment of the general secretary before. And 48 per cent of CLP delegates voted against him. Precisely because he has treated members with contempt. That’s really significant.”

But he was still approved. Won’t his narrow escape redouble his determination to crush the left?

Burgon bursts out laughing. “Shall we give up on everything, Ben? After all the battles the left have won in our society aren’t as numerous as we would like.

“Of course the leadership are going to keep attacking us. But at the end of the day they have seen now that the left can still beat them at conference, can still defeat attacks and win votes, they are acutely aware that the Labour left has not gone away. We are in a stronger position.

“And not just because of the mood in conference. Out there. There is huge public support for public ownership, for a wealth tax, for council housebuilding.

“The left is managing to get policies into the news that most people agree with and the leadership are looking silly trying to stop Labour adopting incredibly popular positions.

“That’s why the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs began conference by putting forward 10 immediate demands for protecting people’s living standards in the current crisis. Starmer is looking inwards. We’re looking out.

“This conference represents a real step forward in the fightback. It shows the transformative policies we won such mass support for in 2015-17 across Britain are still in demand despite the best efforts of the party leadership and the media and the whole Establishment. 

“One of the most inspiring events I have been to in a long time was the Young Labour rally. And the leadership tried to stop them having a platform, and they held the meeting outside the official conference zone.

“And it was addressed by Jeremy Corbyn. And by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. And by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. By a climate striker.

“And it was huge. And it was full of hope.

“People should take heart from this. The left is alive and kicking.”