Connected calls

The Labour Party is meeting online this week as universities continue to battle the pandemic

Officially speaking, there is no annual conference for the Labour Party this year. Instead, since Saturday and running until Tuesday, the opposition is hosting Connected, billed as “four days of keynotes, training, rallies, policy discussions and an interactive virtual expo with all our movement—from MPs to authors, members to trade unions”.

In reality, though, it will be viewed as the party’s annual conference for the pandemic era. Today and tomorrow, there will be sessions from the UK’s national academies, a look at engineering priorities in the spending review and how “levelling up” can promote social and economic inclusion. At 3.30pm today, the Institute for Government, Imperial College London and the Wellcome Trust will hold a session on Britain’s role in the world after Brexit, to be addressed by shadow foreign secretary and former leadership candidate Lisa Nandy.