Labour is in a weirdly disciplined state

The phrase you overhear the most at Labour conference is: ‘this is a good one to come to’. Most delegates assume this is the last conference before a general election, and both Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have made comments to that effect in their speeches. The latter said she hoped to be standing before the next conference as the first ever female Chancellor of the Exchequer.

It has been a very long time since the party has realistically had these expectations: the pre-election conference in 2014, for instance, was so markedly muted and depressed that it became very clear to those attending that Labour’s frontbenchers did not think they were on the brink of an election win. In the intervening years, each conference has become progressively less attractive to attend, unless you enjoy watching human misery. Last year there was still a sense of a battle within the party over its structures.