Keir Starmer’s big speech to his party’s conference was about the practical things Labour could do to fix Britain. He was introduced by the leader of Southampton Council, who talked repeatedly about what happens when Labour gets into power. She said that Starmer ‘knew what Labour had to do to win again… now he is setting out what Britain needs to do to win again.’

Starmer’s big announcement to show how Labour will help Britain win again was a practical one: a Labour government will set up Great British Energy, a publicly-owned energy company which will ‘take advantage of the opportunities in clean British power’. It showed that the announcement from Louise Haigh earlier in the week that Labour would bring the railways back into public ownership wasn’t an aberration, but a central part of Starmerism. He wasn’t clear, though, what that would mean for consumers: lower bills? Or just greater energy independence for the country?

This was supposed to be the speech where Starmer set out what he stood for and his vision for the country. That vision for a repaired Britain was quite hopey-changey, running through a list of things no one could really disagree with, including people having hope for the future. ‘We will run towards the challenges of tomorrow!’ he declared, like a fitness instructor who posts inspirational quotes on Instagram. But these lines did have a purpose: they were designed to pitch Labour as being upbeat rather than trying to make voters feel depressed, as Ed Miliband did. He described Britain as being ‘all at sea where a cloud of anxiety hangs over people’, but quickly moved to saying that Labour must ‘provide clear leadership’, ‘walk towards a better future’ and so on.

He even channelled Churchill at one point when he was attacking the Conservatives for suggestions that ‘working people lack “skill” and “application”’. His riposte was: ‘No. We’re not going to take this. This is the fight. If they want to fight us on redistribution, if they want to fight us on workers’ rights, if they want to tell us working people don’t come first, we will take them on – and we will win.’

The conference hall loved his speech, giving him 14 full standing ovations. Great British Energy got the biggest one. But so did promises on not working with the SNP, on supporting Ukraine and on rooting out anti-Semitism. Some of the statements felt like an opportunity to show how much Labour has changed: look, they’ll applaud this now, rather than heckle.

But it wasn’t a crowd-pleasing speech in the sense that it promised impossible stuff. Far from it: at one point he had a rather flat-sounding line that ‘I would love to stand here and say Labour will fix everything. But the damage they’ve done – to our finances and our public services means this time the rescue will be harder than ever’. Public services wouldn’t just need more investment but also reform. Starmer has often been criticised for being too cautious: here, he was trying to justify that as honesty about what was possible. His supporters will be pleased with how the speech came out and the message it conveyed, just as they’ll be pleased with the conference overall. But the caution isn’t just limited to policy announcements. Most Labour people I’ve spoken to this week hope their party now has the opportunity to win and are pleased with how it is progressing. But they remain deeply cautious.