For many Labour MPs, this year’s conference is one they would not have minded missing.
The party is sitting far behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the polls and their leader is more unpopular than ever.
So it will have been a welcome break from an otherwise somber gathering in Liverpool to play in the traditional journalists v MPs football game.
Hosted by the FA at Goodison Park, Everton’s former men’s ground now used by the women’s team, the parliamentary press gallery took on a team of Sir Keir’s backbenchers and ministers.
Far from a cricket score, the teams struggled through the first half to break down each other’s defences, despite a strong showing on the right flank from health minister Stephen Kinnock.
Suspended Labour MP Brian Leishman, who played for Labour despite sitting as an independent, put on a commanding performance in the MPs’ goal, shutting down a series of chances set up by the Lobby XI.
The game exploded into life in the last 10 minutes, with ITV’s Tom Sheldrick scoring a rocket of a header after a peachy corner delivered by the Betting and Gaming Council’s Oscar Tami.
The Lobby XI spent the rest of the match on the front foot but were unable to put it to bed.
And, in a last minute twist, Jack Abbott, the Ipswich MP and bag carrier in the department for culture, media and sport, found himself free on the edge of the box before cutting inside and curling one past the Lobby’s keeper.
The extra time equaliser gave the Labour MPs cause for celebration. Meanwhile, newly promoted justice minister and assistant whip Jake Richards, after four hours’ sleep having seen Oasis at Wembley the night before, was awarded man of the match for the MPs.
He told The Independent: “It was the least the lads deserved. We were the better team, and I’m just pleased I was able to get on the scoresheet to help the team.” The Lobby XI’s player of the match, the Observer’s Tom Larkin, described the result as “a robbery”.
Despite rampant speculation in the run up to the match, die-hard Everton fan and would-be leadership contender Andy Burnham failed to show up for the Labour side.
It was completed by High Peak MP Jon Pearce, Banbury’s Sean Woodcock, Harlow’s Chris Vince, Crewe and Nantwich’s Connor Naismith, Livingston’s Gregor Poynton, Dr Simon Opher from Stroud, former employment rights minister Justin Madders and Blue Labour’s Jonathan Hinder.
The Lobby XI is facing a challenge pulling together enough players for next week’s Tory conference fixture, with Kemi Badenoch’s depleted Conservatives struggling to attract a full slate of political journalists to the Manchester gathering.
