Labour Party conference: Where is everyone?

“Nervous” is how one delegate described the conference to me today. “Sobering” is how Peter Mandelson described it at a European Commission event last night. Day three of the Labour Party conference 2008 and everyone agrees that any immediate chance of a serious challenge to Gordon Brown’s leadership has fallen by the wayside with the exceptional events of the last week.

But it is not that everything is suddenly all sweetness and light in the Labour Party. It is more that an uneasy truce has emerged, with all recognising the prospect of continued uncertainty over the prime minister job isn’t helpful while stock markets continue to bounce up and down like tigger with a spring in his step.

The most noticeable thing so far, though, is the eerie quiet that seems to be pervading the conference. There aren’t as many labour supporters willing to give up their time to come along as their once was. And from a construction perspective, there simply aren’t as many companies queuing to attach themselves to the New Labour project.

the conference’s only dedicated construction-related event was cancelled yesterday, apparently because of a confusion over diaries

Indeed the conference’s only dedicated construction-related event was cancelled yesterday, apparently because of a confusion over diaries. One didn’t get the sense that anyone was particularly disappointed about it.

The two issues feed in to each other. While the party languishes in the polls, delegates mutter about the performance of prime-minister Brown, and wonder whether someone will have the confidence to challenge him. And although there will be no challenge to Brown this week, or in the next few weeks - barring a disastrous speech on Tuesday - there is no mistaking the anger felt by many about the direction the party is going in.

An adviser to one of the 12 MPs who wrote to the parliamentary party requesting a leadership contest was barely able to contain his rage at how the “rebels” had been treated. He claimed Downing Street advisers had even briefed to “out” Scottish Labour MP David Cairns as gay in payback for his part in last week’s mini-rebellion. While there’s no way of knowing if that is true, it demonstrates how fundamentally the trust between different factions of the party has broken down.

The clever lobbyists all know that now is the time to cement friendships with the party on the rise, in order to ensure good relations with the next government

But while all this is going on, most in industry are also looking at the opinion polls. They’ve already started gearing themselves up for the next Conservative government, so wonder what the point of getting to know Labour is. Hence the slightly ghostly exhibition halls.

The clever lobbyists all know that now is the time to cement friendships with the party on the rise, in order to ensure good relations with the next government. And for many in industry – particularly the property sector – there is a feeling of coming home about it, having always felt a Conservative government was business’ natural ally.

So the national papers will write all week about the ongoing theatre of the leadership contest, about David Milliband’s speech this afternoon, and Brown’s tomorrow – and to the outside world it will appear as a party conference undimmed. However, what is really noticeable is the lack of activity, on all the little policy areas, beneath the surface. The thinner attendance at the policy seminars. The slightly emptier bars – albeit serving those delegates actually there as much alcohol as ever.

The suspicion is that those drinks aren’t toasts to a glorious future. More like drinking to forget.