What a difference a year makes. With many who trod the stage at the Labour Party Conference in 2014 now consigned to darkened seats in the audience, a new and relatively untested Shadow Cabinet will take to the podium in Brighton this week to speak to a party invigorated – or riled up – under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Exactly how united this diverse and somewhat factionalised Shadow Cabinet will appear is questionable. Cut from a wide variety of intellectual cloths, they have already demonstrated an inability to sing from the same hymn sheet.
Mr Corbyn has already encountered trouble with his Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Owen Smith, after he claimed that Labour’s opposition to the welfare cap aimed only to prevent a reduction in its level. This was entirely repudiated by Mr Corbyn in an interview with the New Statesman.
These inconsistencies are, in part, born out of Mr Corbyn’s dialectical approach to policymaking. Having campaigned on a platform promising debate and consultation, it is unsurprising that his intentionally diverse Shadow Cabinet is struggling to deliver a clear message.
However, far from being regarded as a new model of leadership, Mr Corbyn’s approach so far has been seen by critics as at best uncoordinated and at worst incompetent.
It is unlikely that the 2015 conference season will do much to repair this impression. While such occasions have in previous years been an opportunity for the leadership to present and clarify its vision, Mr Corbyn has promised instead to make the annual event a key vehicle for policymaking, with Labour members voting on motions that will become official positions for the party.
Whatever the merits of this system, in the increasingly divided Labour party it seems unlikely to result in either a clear public message or a picture of party unity.
One of the areas of greatest contention will be a motion on the abolition of the Trident nuclear missile system.
While Mr Corbyn and many of his supporters are in favour of this idea in principle at least, several members of his Shadow Cabinet, including his Deputy Leader, his Shadow Defence Secretary and his Shadow Foreign Secretary, have publicly voiced opposition to the plan.
It is also opposed by the GMB trade union, whose acting secretary in Scotland Gary Smith has criticised the potential loss of 40,000 jobs from the scrapping of Trident.
Coupled with rumours of a likely vote in Parliament on British military involvement in Syria, the debate could see Mr Corbyn’s domestic agenda derailed by foreign policy, the area in which the two factions of the Labour party have the least in common.
How to manage the lack of clarity produced by such a system will be a key test of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
He is likely to rely on the expertise of his newly recruited Communications Director Kevin Slocombe and Executive Director of Policy and Rebuttal Neale Coleman.
With the latter having reportedly drafted a fully scripted keynote speech – a measure Mr Corbyn has previously eschewed in favour of a more spontaneous approach – there is a possibility we may see a more polished and prepared version of the Labour Leader as he delivers his first conference address.
If he is able to get himself heard over the mêlée, newly selected Labour candidate for the 2016 London Mayoral Election Sadiq Khan may also use this as an opportunity to set out his key plans and policies.
Widely regarded as a race in which Labour stands a good chance of success, the key issues in the London mayoral election, such as transport, infrastructure and housing, will likely see a great deal of discussion in fringe events around the conference complex.
For the politicos flocking to the seaside to watch the show, the events will also provide an opportunity to examine and scrutinise the new Shadow Ministers. With many having been plucked from the obscurity of the backbenches and some having only been Members of Parliament since June, this will be the first time they face the full glare of the spotlight.
DeHavilland has covered hundreds of fringe events and main speeches at the four main party conferences. Order a copy of their comprehensive conference briefing online here.