“The mood of the party?” A reliable opening question between news presenter and political journalist. Necessarily imprecise, the answer can still transport the listener or viewer to where they aren’t. Doing so from Liverpool this week invokes the other meaning of the word party. This was the conference that should have taken place in 2024 after Labour’s return to power. But it didn’t, owing to the stumbling of the government in general and the fumbling of the prime minister in particular. Keir Starmer’s first speech in office had dampened the mood, intentionally.

This year the Labour party conference was a happy place. The sun was shining; the branding was smiling: Andy Burnham’s beaming countenance ubiquitous.

Lauded as a winner in 2024, Starmer always dutifully undertook the leader’s traditional role of meeting the troops, but barely survived the 2025 conference. His precarity came across in selfies in which he never looked less than awkward. Conversely, such is Burnham’s propensity for banter that a guard of “big lads” were charged with standing around him to prevent mobbing (as one of them told me).

The tone was palpably different from a year ago. In September 2025, almost every conversation alighted on the prospects........

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