As the Labour party conference kicked off in Liverpool, the rain clouds gathered. Drenched delegates should have been celebrating at their first conference in power for 15 years. Instead, the mood was subdued after weeks of ministers hammering home their message that the Conservative party had left the country in a terrible economic state. Anger from voters about a decision to cut the universal winter fuel allowance and a row over donations of clothes and free football and concert tickets did nothing to dispel the gloom.

Arriving at the conference centre at the Royal Albert docks, Helen Pidd went in search of hope. She spoke to delegates who explained that they were trying to balance a message that there will be tough decisions ahead with celebrating the changes Labour had already made. Manchester’s mayor, Andy Burnham, provided a more upbeat outlook, insisting not only were there reasons to be cheerful about the changes Labour had begun to make in the country but that the mood at the conference was “really buoyant, really positive”.

After the chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, addressed the conference, the Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, told Helen how she had made a real attempt to shift the tone. Without changing tack, Reeves had been at pains to explain what “tough decisions” like the cuts to winter fuel allowance were in aid of.

Finally on Tuesday, as the rain eventually stopped, Keir Starmer took to the stage. The prime minister’s speech was supposed to offer the country some optimism and a positive vision of the future. But how convincing was it?

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