Labour conference: Starmer happy to take the blows if it means winning

"Most of the people here are actually interested in winning an election. I can feel it," said a member of Labour's shadow cabinet rather jubilantly.

It might sound deeply strange that a senior politician would feel the need to make such a remark about the members of their own party.

But over the past few years it has sometimes felt like Labour was spinning round in smaller and smaller circles of rage, so consumed with its own angst that it forgot its purpose - to win elections and try to change the country, not to provide a hobby for those interested in politics, or a debating society for activists.

That's why, bizarre though it may sound, it matters that Sir Keir Starmer clearly and loudly said earlier that winning is more important to him than keeping the party together - the "unity" Labour politicians love to promise, and indeed the "unity" that he himself said he would prioritise during his campaign to become leader.

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Sir Keir's clarity, in my interview with him, suggests he is quite happy to have had the bumpy ride of the past few days if it helps Labour to start looking a bit more capable of running the country.

He almost admitted that some of his leadership campaign pledges would go by the wayside if it meant he would be able to keep his bigger promise of being able to win the next election.

"The world has changed" since he made those commitments at the start of last year, he said.

And while Sir Keir didn't say he was happy for malcontents to leave the party, his tone suggested an impatience with those who continue to protest at the direction he's taking - a notion of "Get on board, or there's the door".

There is a sense in Brighton this week that Labour is, broadly, moving to a new reality or perhaps returning to something that's more familiar.

The left screams and shouts. The party machine and its leaders, more in the centre, listen "respectfully" then ignore much of what is said.

That's the reverse of what happened under Jeremy Corbyn, when the right of the party howled, the party machine and its leaders listened "respectfully" then ignored much of what was said.

That doesn't mean for a moment that suddenly Sir Keir is leading a party that can win an election.

But for MPs in particular, aside from the few dozen who are still trying to make arguments for Mr Corbyn's credo, this conference might mark a return to something like normal business, where the party puts winning seats ahead of its own political purity - and they have a chance at least to make arguments that the public might be more likely to hear.