Graeme Trudgill: Potential ‘future PM’ and the FCA – why to attend first session of 26 Biba Conference

A potential “future prime minister”, the FCA and broadcaster Kay Burley on the stage – these are among reasons why Biba chief executive Graeme Trudgill believes that the opening session of the 2026 Biba Conference is not one to miss this year.

This year’s conference is scheduled for 13 and 14 May 2026 and will be held at Manchester Central. The theme is “Time To”, which, according to the broker body, is about ”embracing the present, taking decisive action and driving meaningful change for your business”.

The opening session, which has been labelled Time:To Address the Burning Questions, will go ahead on the first day of the conference at 9.50am.

There will be a welcome address from Burley and speeches from Biba chair Caroline Barr and Trudgill. Following this, Lisa Sturley, head of supervision at the FCA, Iain Anderson, non-executive director at Biba, Sir Ben Wallace KCB, former secretary of state for defence and mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham will take to the stage.

“My view [is that the best session] is the opening session,” Trudgill tells Insurance Times.

“You’re going to have our new host Burley, our new chair and my address. But then you’re going to have the FCA – the first time in a long time they have taken to the main stage – to talk about working with brokers and Biba.

“Then you’re going to have Burnham, who could be our future prime minister, and then you are going to have Wallace.”

What to expect from Burnham

Burnham takes to the stage after attempting to stand as Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election earlier this year.

However, his attempt to stand as an MP were blocked and the BBC reported in March 2026 that “many in the party believed Burnham was blocked because of fears he could challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the party leadership if he became an MP”.

At Biba, he will participate in a fireside chat event led by Burley. And it will be interesting to see if anything is said about leadership ambitions.

In 2019 – when Biba named Boris Johnson as its closing speaker – he publicly threw his hat into the ring for the Conservative leadership during his speech.

Explaining what to expect from Burnham, Trudgill says delegates will “get his overview of UK politics, get views on his future and views on the greater geopolitical situation we all find ourselves in”.

Conference growth 

May’s conference marks the third one Trudgill is hosting as the chief executive at Biba, after taking over from predecessor Steve White in July 2023. Previously, Trudgill was the trade body’s executive director – a role he had held for just over 10 years.

Over 200 exhibitors are expected to attend the event this year, including insurers, service providers, brokers and software houses.

And Trudgill believes that this year’s conference could break a record in terms of attendance. He says: “We track the numbers compared to this time last year and I’d like to think that we could, for the first time ever, nudge into that 10,000.

“It is a big ask to get 10,000 people, particularly with the challenges for our international visitors and it’s not as easy for them to get around right now.

“But we would like to nudge into that if we could but it is a big ask.”

Trudgill also explained that Biba had been “professionalising the Biba Conference and [there is] a lot of business”.

“[It] even gets quite competitive between some of the exhibitors,” he says.

“So, we do anticipate lots of business will be done. I’d like to think that in a soft market we have right now, there will be lots of willingness to meet with brokers, sign up brokers to new agencies.

“Some of the brokers tell us that they do more business at our conference than they can do in months outside of it because they get the chance to see top underwriters and get some great decisions done.”