It's not enough to be up for the fight, Keir Starmer must show he has a strategy to win

Aharder challenge lies ahead for the prime minister persuading voters and some within his party that he can deliver

- Andrew Rawnsley

First, the good news for a prime minister in dire need of some. Sir Keir Starmer came away from the party conference in Liverpool feeling pleased that the days by the Mersey unfolded a lot better than might have been expected in the circumstances. His speech, an unusually passionate affair by his often stolid standards, was well received. It worked better than many of his previous efforts because it sounded like a man expressing his authentic beliefs rather than someone regurgitating what an adviser has told him it would be tactically smart to say. Some question the wisdom of giving so much attention to Nigel Farage, but most Labour folk like the sight of their leader confronting Reform and declaring: "I will fight them with every breath I have." The squealing from Mr Farage and his under-strappers suggests that some of Labour's attack lines are connecting with the target.

Tribal loyalty to the leader was also galvanised by the overambitious manoeuvres of Andy Burnham. He got out over his skis. "Silly Andy," chuckled one cabinet member, while another thought the mayor of Manchester had "blown himself up". Having headed to Liverpool declaring that Labour MPs were urging him to mount a leadership challenge, he was ultimately impelled to say that he believed the best person to be prime minister is already in the job.

Now, the negative news. The curiously upbeat mood within the conference arena contrasts starkly with how it looked from outside the secure zone. This weekend's survey from Opinium reports that those voters thinking Labour had a good conference are outnumbered more than two to one by those who reckoned it had a bad one. Sir Keir's personal ratings are among the worst of any British leader. Ominously for Number 10 strategists, Mr Farage now leads him by 31 points to 26 as preferred prime minister, though both are beaten by the third of voters responding neither.