Keir Starmer has been trying to rid the Labor Party of ultra-left corbynism for a year and a half, and the first successes should be seen at the party conference in Brighton - the first “physical” since he took office.
But in the past few days, it was mainly Starmer's lack of control over his party that became apparent.
Hardly any observer expects a break if Starmer ends the conference this Wednesday with a keynote address.
Jochen Buchsteiner
Political correspondent in London.
Follow I follow
The congress began with opposition to Starmer's plan to reform the internal electoral system.
Innovations that had been introduced under his predecessor Ed Miliband had paved the way to "entryism" and thus to the election of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.
Previously, for decades it had fallen to the parliamentary group to determine the party leader.
The membership election, which was introduced later, got out of control when hundreds of thousands, many of them left-wing activists without Labor ties, took advantage of the new option of joining the party without significant contributions and electing “their” party leader.
Starmer wanted to change that, but the protests forced him to compromise.
Dispute over minimum wage
In the end, he was only able to (barely) enforce that candidates no longer need ten, but twenty percent approval in the parliamentary group before they can take part in the primary election. Originally Starmer had wanted to largely disempower the base; only a third of their vote should be included in the result. At least he managed to ensure that party members only receive voting rights after six months of membership in Labor. The reform met with scornful comments from its opponents. Former Shadow Treasure Chancellor John McDonnell, a close companion of Corbyn, asked what it reveals about the leadership of the party leader that he is starting his first real party congress to settle the election of his successor.
One decision that the party took against the will of its chairman concerned foreign policy, or more precisely: the AUCUS defense pact that the British government had recently forged with the United States and Australia. The Brighton delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution condemning the new defense community for the Indo-Pacific as a "dangerous move" that "undermines world peace". Except for the choice of words, it resembled statements that Jeremy Corbyn had previously made. Starmer, on the other hand, had expressly "welcomed" the AUKUS Pact in the House of Commons.
Starmer's parliamentary group colleague Andy McDonald provided further topics of conversation.
The shadow minister, previously responsible for the labor market, resigned from his post at the party congress after he had crossed paths with Starmer.
McDonald wanted to follow the demands of the grassroots and set the goal of a minimum wage of 15 pounds (more than 17 euros).
Before he left, McDonald accused the party leader of a “split” in the party and was celebrated with ovations from the delegates.
Tories insulted as scum
Starmer worries that an increase in the minimum wage above the average wage will spark a new debate about the party's economic competence. However, it did not strengthen his argument that an activist at the party convention showed a historical recording of Starmer visiting a McDonald’s fast food restaurant years ago with a £ 15 wage sign. In the end, the party leader approved the vote on the minimum wage.
It was observed everywhere that Starmer's desired middle course lacks support at the grassroots level. Most of the "Corbynistas" are now without parliamentary groups; McDonald was the last. Starmer has also made some progress in his endeavors to counter anti-Semitism on the left wing. But the reluctance to change course has remained surprisingly present. Perhaps the worst adversary is even sitting right on his neck: Angela Rayner, his deputy.
Rayner, who had made her rise under Corbyn, also produced headlines at this party congress that Starmer did not like.
At the conference, delegates and journalists witnessed angry hate speech against the ruling Tories.
Rayner described the conservatives as "a collection of scum, a piece of homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolutely vicious, nasty, banana republic-like, scum coming from Eton".
Are Starmer's Hands Tied?
After outrage from the government, leftists in the Rayner party jumped in. David Lammy, shadow minister for justice, defended her words as "fruity" and tried to equate them with statements made by the prime minister. Starmer reacted rather embarrassed. He wouldn't use such language and talk to Rayner about it, he assured me. Starmer's entourage feared that such failures would harm the goal of winning back voters behind the so-called red wall - Labor's homeland - who voted for the Tories in the last election.
Starmer wants to widen his electorate again, including by trying to drive the party out of extreme views that are difficult to convey outside of university towns.
But it seems as if his hands are tied.
At the convention he even left a brave fellow campaigner, Labor MP Rosie Duffield, out in the rain.
Duffield had interfered in the heated transgender debate, insisting that "only women have a cervix".
As a result, she was threatened by Labor activists in such a way that she preferred to stay away from the party congress.
Instead of defending his group colleague's statement, Starmer found that this "is something that should not be said".