Long read: Labour leaves Liverpool jubilant as Burnham tasks mayors to deliver hope

The Prime Minister unveiled plans for bold changes to pensions, social care, voting reform and even Brexit.

Labour’s return to Liverpool for the party’s annual conference this year, could not have felt more different from 12 months ago.

Sir Keir Starmer was stuck behind Reform in the polls and struggling to evoke a clear message of his politics and his project.

A year on and no one can accuse Andy Burnham of failing to put forward a vision for the future.

The Prime Minister unveiled plans for bold changes to pensions, social care, voting reform and even Brexit.

He said “someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off”, and has certainly done that with the triple lock.

The general mood of the conference was much more upbeat.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told The Northern Powerhouse Partnership’s reception that “this is the conference I wanted us to have after we won the election, and we didn’t really have that sentiment”.

“This optimism comes from the leader, comes from the Prime Minister,” he added.

York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith said: “I think last year it was a bit of an odd conference.

“There were probably mixed views about how it went last year.

“I think this year, you've seen the Prime Minister come in over the last couple of months and really bring that sort of positivity.

“I know we talk about hope a lot, and I know sometimes when politicians start talking about hope people think: ‘It's a bit fluffy.’ But I think that positivity has come through.”

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin told The Yorkshire Post that the attention and focus on the mayors is “night versus day this conference”.

“Even though Keir [Starmer] did lead the way on devolution by default, not every department got the memo,” Ms Brabin said.

“We were always in fights with ministers trying to get the story about how we can be helpful and change the dial.

“Education was a particular challenge post 16. We’ve got that now just because Andy said we should.”

For the mayors’ reception on the first night, a huge queue to get in snaked far away from the door.

Bouncers were getting testy and businesses and other leaders hoped to speak to the mayors, who Mr Burnham has turned into superstars.

In his first conference speech as Chancellor, John Healey announced that mayors would get funding and powers to run local apprenticeship schemes.

It will be “led by mayors, because it’s the mayor that knows their areas best”.

While the Prime Minister said that they would oversee and hold water companies - like Yorkshire Water - to account.

They are set to get powers to set European-style tourism taxes soon, to bring in more money, and retain income tax and business rates to give certainty around spending.

“These are all things that Andy really understands from his vast experience as mayor, and now he can implement the changes he wanted to see as mayor,” Ms Brabin said.

“Businesses, organisations, education establishments - they all now understand that we can work in partnership because now we've got the backing of government.”

For Mr Burnham’s speech the mayors were moved up to the second row in the hall, while MPs were relegated to sitting next to the media at the back.

This shows how a new balance of power is forming.

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said: “Clearly, a Prime Minister in No10 who was previously a northern mayor has changed the dynamics.

“I think people are understanding that what we are doing as mayors is important to the country and important clearly to our communities.

“That is increasingly apparent. We are a new bit of the system, relatively speaking, so it takes a bit of time for people to work it out and understand it.

“People need to see we are making a difference to our communities … and I hope that’s what people have seen from us at this conference.”

Mr Skaith cited the £2 bus fare cap as a policy from the Prime Minister as having “a real positive impact on people's lives”.

“It really feels like you are caring about those small things, the everyday things, as well as the really big national challenges that we are facing.”

However, as the old adage goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

As more policy areas get passed onto mayors there will be more expectation.

After the jubilation dies down they will have to ensure they are getting on with the job.

These are not small issues - getting hundreds of thousands of youngsters into work or training and ensuring that Yorkshire Water starts giving good value to its customers.

There are questions around whether they have the right resources to deal with the huge array of responsibilities that are being handed over from Whitehall.

York and North Yorkshire was only formed as a combined authority just over two years ago and Mr Skaith covers the largest area of any mayor in England.

“Things are moving at pace and it's the right direction of travel,” he said.

“We're having these conversations with government now about if we're getting devolved powers, devolve the people as well, bring those skills in.

“Let's not go and create a whole new other organisation when these people are already doing this work elsewhere.”

Mr Skaith has asked for 12 civil servants to be devolved from Whitehall, which will increase his staff by almost 10 per cent, while in West Yorkshire Ms Brabin is looking to bring in mandarins with experience of setting up mass transit systems.

“They've had a really positive response to that call because lots of people want to work in mayoral combined authorities to get a taste of what that means in delivery,” Ms Brabin added.

After the high of the Labour Party Conference, delivery is the optimum word for mayors.