Keir Starmer’s conference speech in Brighton this week was his opportunity to lay out a bold and ambitious vision for Labour – post-pandemic, post-Brexit, and post-Corbyn. Given that Starmer has previously stated that we’re living through a moment akin to 1945, you could have been forgiven for expecting policy announcements as radical as the creation of the National Health Service. Instead, there was more tinkering around the edges of a fundamentally broken system.

Some elements of the speech were welcome, particularly when it came to climate breakdown. Starmer announced that Labour will “bring forward a Green New Deal” and commit to investing £28 billion per year in green infrastructure and research. This represents a real step forward for Starmer, and a decisive victory for campaigners like those at Labour for a Green New Deal, who worked extraordinarily hard to pass the Green New Deal motion at conference — even as Starmer and his allies tried to obstruct them.

There were some other bright spots: removing charitable status for private schools; committing to insulating millions of homes; and making sure that those requiring access to mental health services can get it in less than a month. But most of these were, in one way or another, in Labour’s 2019 manifesto.