| Hi there, I'm Ailbhe Rea, a Bloomberg associate editor covering Westminster. Good afternoon from Liverpool, where Keir Starmer has just delivered his first speech to Labour's annual conference as prime minister. He said that he won't be distracted by the noisy criticism of his government in recent weeks: "All those shouts and bellows, the bad faith advice from people who still hanker for the politics of noisy performance, the weak and cowardly fantasy of populism — it's water off a duck's back," he told the conference crowd. "Mere glitter on a shirt cuff. It's never distracted me before, and it won't distract me now." Behind the scenes here in Liverpool, there has been plenty of not-so-easily dismissed criticism from people inside his government — even inside Number 10. Against the backdrop of freebies from donors and stories of infighting in Downing Street, there has been real concern from many of Starmer's loyal backbenchers and advisers that things, frankly, haven't been going very well. And people seem to agree that the heart of the problem is the lack of an overarching domestic narrative beyond the doom and gloom of the Treasury's emphasis on the fiscal black hole.  Keir Starmer delivers his speech today Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg This was Starmer's chance to set that narrative, building on Rachel Reeves's attempt yesterday to spell out what the pain will be for. He promised the decade of national renewal that he campaigned on, and repeated the line about wanting to build a country of opportunity for all. But it came with a plea to keep the faith on the journey to get there, through the difficult decisions to come along the way. In particular, he defended Reeves's decision on winter fuel allowances, which has been hanging over this conference, saying: "The risk to showing to the world that this country doesn't fund its policies properly is a risk we can't take again." That, too, came with a dollop of reassurance for party members and disappointed voters, that in the longer term "pensioners will be better off under Labour." Overall, this was a plea for time. Starmer isn't a man who sees much value in speeches like that — he'd far rather just get on with things and be judged on his record. But with his approval ratings now at the level Rishi Sunak's were when he lost, there was an urgent need to reset things in the immediate term. Whether his speech was enough to do that is far from clear. Want this in your inbox each weekday? You can sign up here. | 
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