'This isn't over' Starmer sees off his critics but path remains perilous

With Labour party delegates waving the flags of the UK nations during Keir Starmer's conference speech this week, the beleaguered prime minister was reassured that his paean to patriotism had hit the spot.

- 

Downing Street insiders say his address had been "locked down" for three weeks, avoiding the usual last-minute rewrites, as he was so clear about the argument he wanted to make. Aides met at Chequers at the start of the summer to find Starmer had reams of notes on his vision of how to address the rising tide of nationalism.

But what most in the hall could not see, and was clear to anybody watching on television, were the stony faces of cabinet ministers sitting in the front row for much of his address.

The four days in Liverpool were a predictable dramatic arc. Andy Burnham was the name on everyone's lips at the beginning of conference, but the butt of jokes from the main stage by the end.

Starmer - under pressure to give the speech of his life - delivered what many of his party had been waiting to hear, a full-throated defence of progressive values as the antidote to Reform, with no more equivocation.

"National renewal, patriotism, clear dividing lines between us and the left and the right, aimed directly at Middle Britain," one senior adviser summed it up.

"He finally made an emotional connection," one minister said. "Also scrappy and defiant, which is always good when your back's to the wall." But the view that Starmer has silenced his critics and left his rival chastened would be a naive misreading of the grim mood among many ministers and MPs.

"If this conference had been held two weeks ago, I believe there might have been the possibility of a leadership challenge now," one senior Labour politician said. "As it stands, I think a combination of the right speech and the conduct of Andy Burnham has saved Keir for now. If I was Keir I would send him a bunch of flowers."