Keir Starmer says he knows what’s wrong – but can he fix it?

How could he not have been cheerful?

This was the first Labour leader’s conference speech delivered as prime minister in 15 years – 5,474 days if any disconsolate party activists have been counting.

So it was little wonder that Sir Keir Starmer was so rapturously received in by the rank and file in the hall.

The long wait is over. A party leader not castigating the government from the sidelines but describing what the government – a Labour government – will actually do.

Well, up to a point. This was a speech relatively light on new policy and heavy on political framing.

As advertised, the prime minister picked up where Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, left off yesterday – not merely warning gloomily of the tough decisions to come but trying to project more optimism about the dividends which will come from making the tough choices.

Again, though – only up to a point. No more “false hope”, Starmer said. No more “easy answers”.

Yes, he said, there would be light at the end of the tunnel. But it is still very clearly the government’s view that there is going to be a long tunnel.

Perhaps the most consistent, and fresh, theme was that of trade-offs – in areas where the prime minister said his Conservative predecessors had been dishonest.