Was this Starmer’s best speech? Yes. But he’ll need a new battle plan to convince a doubting Britain | Martin Kettle

The era when a barnstorming address would turn political fortunes is gone. The PM is out of step with modern digital politics and needs to catch up

Keir Starmer saved his best for the fragile circumstances of a difficult Labour conference. It may not yet be enough to save him. All the same, this was by some way Starmer’s most effective and certainly his most interesting conference speech since becoming Labour leader five years ago. Not a particularly high bar, it must be admitted, since Starmer is no great orator – but at least the bar is one that he cleared.

In the dire situation now facing Labour, this mattered a lot. In his earlier conference speeches, Starmer was always stolid and decent but at times painfully careful not to drop the famous “Ming vase”. The phrases that define those earlier efforts – mission-led government, a government of service or even the 2024 manifesto title, Change – may have meant something to Starmer and those around him. But they meant little to anyone else. They sank like stones into the contemporary sea of political indifference.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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