Local government secretary Steve Reed hands out caps and tote bags

THE prime minister could hardly be heard over the political chatter and the clinking of glasses as he stood to welcome the London Labour contingent to Liverpool at a special function on Saturday evening.

The acoustics were bad, but the lack of interest in what he had to say made it worse.

In the end the task fell to amateur DJ and compere Dawn Butler to grab people’s attention.

A year after the general election, Sir Keir Starmer has more doubters inside the party than he did at the conference here in Liverpool last year, when everybody was still celebrating the fizz of a landslide win.

Indeed, mic-wielding hacks arriving on Merseyside were instead chasing around the complex a man who doesn’t even have a seat in parliament.

Andy Burnham – who left the ACC Liverpool minutes before the PM’s closing speech – was the celebrity of this hour and ministers were doorstepped again and again and asked whether the Manchester mayor would be a better fit for the job.

But perhaps more insipid and more dangerous to the party than the drama of the whole will-there-won’t-there-be a leadership contest is an underlying feeling that there is a vacuum at the centre of government.

No clear direction and no clear values was a common complaint when the tape recorders were turned off here.

Some members privately feel that they have little power to change the course.

There was a rush to introduce themselves to local government secretary Steve Reed, the man councils need to argue their case for more money.

In the background you can hear left-wing MPs criticise their own government for not implementing policies like a wealth tax or removing the two-child benefit cap.

To them, they feel like simple fixes.

The loyalty to the party among the card-carriers is pretty steadfast but as Sir Keir and his allies frame the fight between themselves and Reform UK, they are starting to grapple with how to put a flag firmly in some ideological ground.

They need something to tell them what Starmerism really is, and quickly.

Certainly a convincing story is needed before the challenge of May’s local elections in the UK, when the fallout might make it too late.