Labour Party conference preview with Kevin Maguire | Catherine McKinnell MP on the East Coast Mainline | How the North can help Liz Truss

The Labour Party Conference takes place in Liverpool from Sunday, but what can we expect from the "festival of politics"?Kevin Maguire, political journalist and associate editor at the Daily Mirror, who estimates that he has "topped 100 political party and trade union conferences in his life", joins Rob Parsons on The Northern Agenda podcast.He argues that Labour "needs to seize the moment" and Keir Starmer needs to "set out his stall" in Liverpool at the weekend and beyond. Maguire also responds to the use of 'God Save the King' at the party conference, and the Tories U-turn on fracking.And Catherine McKinnell, the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North, speaks to Rob about the East Coast Mainline - one of the country's most important strategic rail routes that connects the North East and Scotland with Yorkshire and London. Critics say that it suffers from unreliability and delays that blights its performance and holds back economic growth in the areas that it serves. And one of those critics is McKinnell, who explains what is going wrong with the East Coast Mainline.Clare Hayward - who chairs the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, and is on the board of the NP11 - also joins Rob on the podcast. She discusses how the North can help new prime minister Liz Truss, as well as what the region is asking from the government.The Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. It is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices