During the 2026 Party Conference season, Prosperity Institute attended three party conferences, holding official fringe events at two. Find a rundown of our attendance below.
3 – 5 September 2026
The Prosperity Institute spent an enjoyable and productive three days at Reform UK’s annual conference in Birmingham, promoting our policy agenda through a host of formal and informal conversations.
We began on Business Day with a panel entitled “What is Reform’s economic vision?” and gave Reform UK’s Treasury Spokesman Robert Jenrick MP an opportunity to set out the big picture of his economic thinking for the business and policy experts in attendance. That evening, we welcomed the chance to meet a wide array of party figures, businesspeople, policy experts, and journalists at our drinks reception at Brightsmith on the Water in the Hilton Metropole.
On the Friday, our Director of Policy Implementation Damien Shannon interviewed Danny Kruger MP on “Fixing the British state” and Reform UK’s preparations for government. They discussed the need for major changes to the civil service and the shape of government if we are to restore accountability and the effective delivery of those policies for which the electorate give politicians a mandate.
Later, in a panel on “How to End Two-Tier Justice?” our Senior Researcher Alex Baker chaired a discussion between journalist David Shipley and Reform UK’s London mayoral Laila Cunningham and Leicestershire PCC Rupert Matthews. They discussed the themes of our policing paper Broken Windows Britain, which sets out a plan for policing low-level crime and disorder, and anticipated the proposals of our recent prisons paper Making Space for Justice, which advocates for a far more ambitious prison-building programme than that of the current government.
Finally, Guy Dampier chaired a panel on “Securing Justice and Securing Borders: How to End Mass Migration for Good”, featuring Suella Braverman MP and journalists Poppy Coburn and Chris Bayliss. They discussed the urgency of ECHR departure, the government’s routine underestimation of how new visa routes will be exploited, and how awarding British citizenship has become a tick-box exercise.
27 – 30 September 2026
As with 2025, we did not host events at Labour Party conference this year but were present within the conference zone at events and receptions.
The atmosphere at this conference was different to last year’s. While the 2025 conference saw a large number of events devoted to ‘defeating the right’, this year the thematic topics of discussion were focused on both AI and trying to devise a policy platform for Andy Burnham.
The most coherent fringe events were all hosted by the Tony Blair Institute, which had both high-quality panels tackling meaningful questions about the inherent failures of government and how to correct for them. There were very few Cabinet-level Ministers at fringe events this year. MP’s and activists attributed this to wanting to reserve all significant announcements for Burnham’s leader’s speech.
The Prime Minister’s speech was the centrepiece of the conference. It changed the mood among activists and Parliamentarians, many of whom were excited by his announcement that the Government would explore the possibility of rejoining the European Union. Our on-the-spot assessment was that Burnham was leaning into a 21st century crisis with a 20th century policy response. Nevertheless, the conference did have a broadly positive energy, and activists went away pleased with what Burnham had to say.
For 2027, we will consider whether to host an event at Labour conference.
4 – 7 October 2026
Prosperity Institute took a strong delegation to Conservative Party Conference 2026. We hosted two events inside the secure zone to promote our research and mission. Both were well attended and provided the Institute with an excellent opportunity to introduce more people to our work and our team.
On the morning of Monday 5th October, we hosted our first event of the day: Protecting prosperity and sovereignty: Is the EU Reset Rejoin by stealth? We were joined on stage by Sir Benard Jenkin MP, Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell and Catherine McBride OBE. The conversation was chaired by Fred de Fossard from the Institute. At the panel, the conversation covered the Government’s decision to forge closer economic ties with the European Union, including following a number of EU rules and regulations, which Prosperity Institute research found could significantly harm the British economy. The panellists also touched on the wider issue of whether the Government intends to go further than the EU Reset and take the UK back into the EU in its entirety.
On Monday afternoon, we hosted our second panel event. Continuing the Institute’s work on healthcare reform, Prosperity Institute welcomed Dr Caroline Johnson MP, Dr Nick White and Stephen Childs for the panel discussion Choice, competition and incentives: it is time to fix the health service. This was an opportunity to promote the Institute’s latest publication, A Healthcare Platform for an Incoming Government, written by Dr White, the Institute’s health policy lead with decades of experience in the NHS. This event was strongly attended, with a large presence of people working in the health and life sciences sectors. Dr White promoted the Institute’s policy reforms, Stephen Childs spoke about the experience of working with Palantir and the health service, and Caroline Johnson hinted at a future Conservative direction for health policy.
That concluded a strong showing for the Institute at this year’s Conservative Party Conference.