Sebastian Payne

Watch: Tristram Hunt and Ian Lavery shows who is up and down in Labour

As the first day of Labour’s conference came to a close, LabourList hosted a ‘winning again’ rally in a dark corner of the Grand Hotel. A bunch of Labour speakers, including Eddie Izzard and Owen Jones, spoke about the party’s general election defeat and the glorious rise of Jeremy Corbyn. The two most contrasting speakers were Tristram Hunt, the former shadow education secretary, and Ian Lavery, the former NUM chief and shadow trade unions minister. The contrasting receptions Hunt and Lavery received shows which direction the party is heading.

Hunt, one of the most prominent modernisers who is popping up at fringe events all over Brighton, was cheered and booed for a joke about David Cameron and the pig’s head allegations:

‘We meet after a terrible general election loss and a bruising leadership election. Many of us might be feeling like the insider of a pig’s head after a Piers Gaveston society ball. And we know the Prime Minister certainly has.

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