Letter: Why Can’t Party Conferences Be Held in Parliament’s Summer Recess?

Published on: 22 Sep, 2025
Updated on: 22 Sep, 2025

A Lib Dem Party Conference. Wikipedia

From Anthony Mallard

In response to: It’s Not Nimbyism to Protect Our Green Spaces

Ms Richardson mentions the Party Conference, an event held annually by all political parties in the autumn.

Her reference to these jamborees prompts me to inquire why are they not held during the summer Parliamentary recess?

We pay MPs an extraordinary salary to represent us in the legislature. They have long periods of leave, especially in the summer. The country is in a mess, the international situation is volatile and yet within a week or so of their summer holiday Parliament is in recess again whilst they go off on an introspective gathering, seemingly more important than doing what they are elected to do.

It’s a bit like Nero who is said to have fiddled while Rome burnt.

Responses to Letter: Why Can’t Party Conferences Be Held in Parliament’s Summer Recess?

Angela Richardson Reply

September 22, 2025 at 7:16 pm

This highlights a common misconception, which is entirely forgivable, that legislating in Westminster is the only work that MPs do and that they are twiddling their thumbs and having long uninterrupted holidays every parliamentary recess.

The job is seven-days-a-week, 52-weeks-a-year. I remember in the summer of 2022 trying and failing to have a break with my family in Cornwall and dealing remotely with the issue of no water for some constituents for several days during a heatwave, while not being able to say I was away in order to keep my house secure. It’s a nightmare. Family doesn’t get a look in.

Conference season happens when it does partly because of tradition and because venues need booking out well in advance. Changing the Parliamentary calendar is possible but it would be like turning an oil tanker and many would say there are other things more important to prioritise.

But Anthony Mallard makes a good point about the job of legislating. It’s not happening at pace under this Labour Government and there are many days where Labour MPs are on a one-line-whip.

That’s worth a question or two.

Angela Richardson is the former Conservative MP for Guildford.