The Westminster circus is preparing to descend once again on the Liverpool docks as Labour holds its annual party conference at the city's big convention centre.
It'll be five days of political debate, speeches and drinks events for the Labour faithful. But as Keir Starmer tries to rouse his troops and get his stuttering premiership back on track, there's a shadow being cast by a certain Scouse-accented metro mayor and King of the North who may well just steal the limelight.
Will this year's Labour conference turn out to be the Andy Burnham show? Rob Parsons and Liam Thorp discuss it with one of the country's most successful and best-connected political journalists, Patrick Maguire, who as well as being chief political commentator at The Times is a native of nearby Southport.
Patrick will be appearing at the Ilkley Literature Festival on Sunday 19th Oct at 1:15 pm to talk about his book 'Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer', described as a blistering exposé of the most significant and ruthless political transformation in a generation.​ More details here.

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