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12
Feb
Conservative Party to hold spring conference in Harrogate
About 8,000 people are expected to converge on Harrogate next month, when the Conservative Party holds its spring conference at the convention centre.
The event, often called the spring forum, is one of the highlights of the party’s calendar, second only to its main autumn conference.
That was organised last year by Stewart Harper, the president of the National Conservative Convention. Writing on the Tory-supporting website Conservative Home, he explained what next month's event offered:
Our spring conference offers members a valuable opportunity to hear directly from senior figures within the party, including the most senior members of the shadow cabinet, and to gain first-hand insight into a growing and evolving renewal programme.
It is a chance for every party member to engage – not through headlines or soundbites, but through thoughtful discussion and shared experience.
Harrogate Convention Centre's auditorium.
The conference will be held from Friday, March 6 to Sunday, March 8.
A detailed agenda has not been published yet but Saturday will feature keynote speeches from Kemi Badenoch's shadow cabinet.
Conference tickets cost £50, reduced to £40 for Young Conservatives, and there are extra costs for certain other events. The members' three-course dinner, for example, costs £55 a head, and attendance at the business afternoon (theme: “unlocking business in the North”) costs another £25. The quiz night did cost £10, but is already sold out.
This is not the first spring conference to be held at Harrogate Convention Centre. The venue hosted the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference in 2025, and was to have hosted the Conservative Party’s spring event in 2020, but that was cancelled due to the covid pandemic.
It is not normally used by the three main parties for autumn conferences, but it did host the Green Party's autumn conference in 2022.
In his piece on Conservative Home, Mr Harper said that Harrogate was “worth visiting in itself”.
He wrote:
Harrogate offers the perfect blend of elegant spa-town charm, Yorkshire hospitality and some pretty decent venues, making it an inspiring and welcoming place to come together.
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