October is an odd month in British politics.

As it begins the political parties are usually at their conferences decamping from Westminster for Birmingham, Brighton, or Liverpool, thankfully not all at the same time.

These events are opportunities for MPs, party activists, and lobbyists to mingle, plot, and celebrate/mourn (delete as appropriate) over their fortunes in recent elections.

This year I expected my party to be in the latter mood, the election result gave us plenty to think about and while we have a lot of work to do to win back the trust of the public, I was heartened by the performance and quality of the candidates in the leadership election who took centre stage at our conference in Birmingham.

The contest has been narrowed down to two contestants, Kemi Badenoch, and Robert Jenrick, and I look forward to hearing their views on how we can rebuild our party to take the fight to Labour and their ever-more incoherent, but dazzlingly well-dressed government.

On that note, October is also the beginning of the ‘spooky season’, which, thanks to the influence of our American cousins who celebrate, Halloween, is now an annual British event too.

Anything to stave off the Christmas decorations going up in shops in September I suppose!

It is a great time for pumpkin carving, starchy soup and scary movies, but for many of us, the real horror will be hearing what Labour will announce in the budget on the 30th of October.

The Prime Minister has already suggested there will be hard choices to make, so we can expect the Chancellor to announce spending cuts and tax increases.

This is because the Labour Party have claimed there is a £22 billion gap in the public finances they need to fill.

So, I am rather concerned that the Treasury is refusing to publish key data to verify the ‘blackhole’ Rachel Reeves has found.

Quite aside from the debate about how big of a fiction this fiscal gap is, I sincerely doubt that the decision to buy off the unions with above-inflation pay deals costing £10 billion has helped to close this gap in the finances, the cost of which will in no-way be financed by the callous decision to take winter fuel payments from the elderly ahead of winter.

This largesse is sadly reminiscent of the previous Labour government, only this time without the spin, and seemingly also the decency to buy their own clothes.

Keir Starmer promised to bring trust into politics with ‘action not words’ – but in just over 100 days in office he has faced scandal after scandal, including handing civil service jobs to cronies and rewarding donors with Downing Street security passes after accepting tens of thousands of pounds worth of freebies.

The Prime Minister needs to make a rapid change in direction, to stop targeting pensioners and the hardest working on our communities and to start being honest with the public.