Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party

London, England-based photographer Stephen Simpson has just finished covering three weeks of political conferences in the UK.

Well, it’s finally over for 2012, almost three weeks of political conferences. I travelled to Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham for the Liberal Democrat, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party conferences. I enjoy covering politics, but three weeks of living in the ‘conference bubble’ crawling around on your knees (someone start wearing knee pads – then we all can, I’m not going to be the first!) staying in hotels and getting up very early going to bed very late; various Secretaries of State keynote speeches, numerous ministers speeches and of course the three leaders speeches takes it’s toll on your mental state as well as physically. Suddenly you find yourself yearning for a decent walk along a beach to take a decent weather picture just to get some fresh air.

See more photos on Stephen’s blog.

Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, waits to take part in a TV interview in Manchester

Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party, has make up applied prior to a TV interview

The Mayor of London arrives in a media scrum at Birmingham New Street Station to chants of “Boris, Boris” from a waiting crowd

Prime Minister David Cameron delivers his speech in The Symphony Hall in Birmingham

Dave and Samantha Cameron hug after his speech