Keir Starmer has presented voters with a serious alternative to the Tories

Editorial: When Starmer pledged in his speech he would present the British people with a serious plan for government, it was not merely a renunciation of Jeremy Corbyn, but precisely the approach the party needs to encourage the public to vote Labour

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Sir Keir Starmer likes to say – “boast” is hardly the word – that his main achievement at this stage of his leadership is that the British people, having stopped listening to Labour for a while, are now at least inclined to give him a hearing.

It’s certainly true, on the basis of the result of the general election in December 2019, that Labour’s message didn’t at that point resonate with the electorate, and it’s a sign of the internal challenges still facing Starmer that he felt compelled to remind his party conference of this salient fact.

Evidently, Starmer is making some progress with the electorate, and he and his team are starting to frame some narratives and come up with what Tony Blair called “eye-catching initiatives”. A good deal of that is down to the two most senior women on the front bench – Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves – who have both had a good conference.