Sir Keir Starmer speech breathes life into Labour after conference blighted by infighting

It had seemed a rough conference for the Labour leader, with announcements being drowned out by infighting or the resignations of ministers you’d never heard of.

Attention had also been on Sir Keir Starmer’s changes to how leaders were elected, with the left crying foul play because they would no longer be capable of controlling the party.

From the outside it appeared not just dull, but perhaps even chaotic, with Conservatives considerably quicker to deride the Labour party than they were acting on the fuel crisis.

But the chaos has effectively shut out the far-left from future leadership contests and given power back to national executive.

Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference in Brighton. Picture: PA

Even the resignation of Andy McDonald over a policy he had himself launched less than 24 hours earlier was a boost.

Sir Keir has seen someone from the wing of his party most toxic to voters leave, and done so without even having to push them himself.

There were chants of “solidarity” at the Tribune rally from the party’s left, but that’s all they were. These people are out.

On Sunday a motion on anti-Semitism was passed and during Sir Keir’s speech, the few hecklers able to organise were drowned out by the crowd. The tide has turned.

The faces of the far-left may have got attention and headlines over the past few days, but with Sir Keir’s changes they will soon become an irrelevance.

Sir Keir has picked fights he can win and he keeps winning them.

This all counts for nothing, of course, if there is nothing for voters to believe in.

The Labour leader is often criticised for not being charismatic, a lack of policies and not going hard enough in his response to the Tories.

None of this was on display in his speech. There were pledges, actual jokes and even praise for a man so often ignored by his predecessors, Tony Blair.

For a party so long more interested in apologising for its achievements than delivering more, it was a seismic moment.

It was also boosted by the attacks from the crowd. Seeing Sir Keir heckled so early was akin to watching a fighter get up after an early knockdown.

The watchers roared back in the face of those interrupting, seemingly transmitting their own enthusiasm into the Holborn and St Pancras MP.

Sir Keir has spoken about the tragedies that afflicted his family before, but the tone and atmosphere on Wednesday was far beyond what’s possible near the likes of Piers Morgan.

That’s not to say it was perfect and clearly more policies need to come, but it was moving, interesting, and better than anything from him or his party for a very long time.

People forget there have been three Labour Governments in recent history, all with one leader.

Britain is not a country predisposed to left-wing politics and changing that was never further than under Mr Corbyn.

Turning the party around will take time and becoming the next Prime Minister is still a long shot.

But Sir Keir’s speech made a pitch to voters beyond Labour members and his chances look unimaginably better at the end of conference than it did at the beginning.