Some people have said Keir Starmer needs a little stardust.

He wouldn’t have wanted his speech to start the way it did, being ambushed by a protestor, but sparkling as he reeled off 13 years of shining Labour achievements was only appropriate. As was rolling up his sleeves and setting out his vision for repairing, building and healing a country broken by 13 years of Tory rule.

Commentators have been fond of saying Starmer “has no vision”. This has never been true, but it is fair that, at times, it has been hard to see the connective tissue between the range of policies needed to restore a country as comprehensively run down as Tory Britain back to greatness.

‘The protest element has left the party – it’s not a top-down revolution’

No one can say he lacks vision or purpose any longer. For all the policy in Keir’s speech today – and there was lots, over a million new houses, new towns, NHS funding, investing for growth – the most important thing in the speech were the values.

Starmer used his platform today to pitch Britain a politics of service. His Labour party promises to work as hard for you as you work every day. He has set himself the question of “why vote Labour” and he has answered with a politics of duty that is intuitive and rooted in the values of normal people.

The void left behind as the ‘protest’ element left the party has been filled and that tendency totally repudiated. This is not a top-down revolution.

Look at the response from members in the conference hall to the appalling events in Israel. The observance of the minute’s silence, the applause in the hall as Keir slammed the terrorists in Hamas, the relegation of their supporters to the street outside, where once they were in the conference hall.

Labour members are not interested in performance anymore. They are ready to serve their country.

Security is a key message

Duty and service complement Labour’s other main agenda of this conference. Security, as set out by Rachel in Monday’s speech, and picked up by Keir today, resonates with service.

The British people know that the fundamental root of their insecurity is the disinterest of the current government in their lives. As Keir said, they simply do not inhabit the same world we do. He was perhaps charitable in suggesting they are unaware of how bad things have gotten.

In reality, they know and do not care, but he set out the Conservatives basic mantra perfectly: when your interests are on the line, they make you pay – when it is people like them, they look after themselves.

After so much insecurity for so long, it has been hard to imagine how any government could stabilise all the competing pressures on people’s lives.

Through his talk of service, Starmer has been clear he will no longer allow the burdens of the age of insecurity to be loaded onto the backs of working people. He boldly suggested Labour itself is the answer.

Giving working people the freedom to do what they love

In government, Labour will “carry the load”. It will be a government that takes care of the big decisions so working people have the freedom to do more of what they love. Give them more time, more energy, more possibility and ultimately, more of the best things in life.

This is Labour with its purpose back. More of a mission than any of the five announced earlier this year service unites everything, from our most technical policy to our broadest aspirations.

With this speech, and just in time, sparkling Starmer has put the shine back on the party.

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