In the hotel bar on the last night of Labour conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, one senior aide of Keir Starmer was taking soundings from journalists about how they felt the annual gathering had gone. The adviser nodded along when they said that it had been a competent and professional affair but it was only when one reporter replied that it had also been “a bit boring” that he broke out into a big grin. “That’s the right answer,” he said. After years of Labour conferences being overshadowed by factional rows, and in stark contrast to the last two chaotic Conservative gatherings, this year’s event in Liverpool passed by with barely a hitch, with the party leaving looking like it was on the path to power. Even the dramatic interruption of Starmer’s speech by a protester who threw glitter over him worked to his advantage, as he removed his jacket and literally rolled up his sleeves to deliver what was widely regarded as his best speech yet as leader. While the media may have felt the conference was uneventful, for Starmer’s supporters it was anything but. The fringe events, speeches and receptions were packed to the rafters, with queues snaking through the venue and the cafes even running out of food. A senior aide said the conference was the biggest ever, with more than 18,000 delegates – larger than during the heyday of Tony Blair. Peter Mandelson rubbed shoulders with the shadow cabinet, while Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and singer Will Young appeared at fringes. Sue Gray, the former civil servant and Starmer’s new chief of staff, was a major presence, with some who spoke to her saying she was not especially enjoying the political melee – finding she had a lot of new people to meet and was not particularly enjoying the limelight. As the conference concluded, a shadow cabinet minister was ebullient about how smoothly it had gone, contrasting it to the “seven bins worth of rubbish we saw at the Tories in Manchester”. Labour MPs – to the relief of the leadership – remained incredibly disciplined and on message. “We are on a very, very tight leash. No one wants to be the one that says ‘that thing’. The person who fucks up,” said a shadow minister. One senior party figure admitted there was a conscious decision to avoid using words such as “bold” and “radical” because they didn’t want to scare the public into thinking they would be splashing their cash. An official who organised events said that Starmer’s team had been incredibly paranoid about making sure he and other shadow cabinet ministers were not introduced as “the future prime minister” or “the future government”. Yet some of the discipline broke down behind the scenes, with Labour staffers in the bars confidently debating how they would run things in government and MPs discussing how Labour should fight to turn “a five-year term into a 10-year one”. The biggest concern among Team Starmer is that the party starts to look complacent, with a warning from Starmer himself at the start of the conference not to become “giddy” about the prospect of power and his team citing statistics which show they would need a huge swing of 12% to get a majority of just one. One senior aide said: “If the last few years have taught us anything it’s that major events can totally derail your plans, and that the electorate is unpredictable. Only a fool would say at this stage that we’re definitely going to win.” Despite the success of his speech, there are some Labour MPs who feel that Starmer needs to do much more work to land his message, with polls suggesting that there is no great love for the Labour leader and indicating “don’t knows” could still be up for grabs. “We’ve been doing well in the polls because people want to give the Tories a kicking, rather than because they’ve been inspired by Keir and our vision for the country,” one “red wall” MP said. “Some of my colleagues don’t have a clue how much more work we have to do.” Yet one shadow cabinet minister suggested that, after a turbulent few years, voters could welcome the serious and stable government that Starmer was offering. “Keir won’t make your heart sing, but he won’t break it either,” they added. There was some eye-catching policy – a pledge to build 1.5m homes and the creation of a Covid corruption commissioner among them – but it was the repeated promise of fiscal discipline that was the thread that ran throughout. However, many senior Labour figures are worried about how much of their spending plans rely on money from ending non-dom tax status. “The non-dom tax policy is our hardest-working policy right now,” said one. Some senior politicians are concerned that the caution on their policies is making the party more vulnerable to attack, not less – especially when it comes to their £28bn green prosperity plan. “I worry we’re getting the worst of all worlds,” said one. “We’ve said we’re going to do it but we’re not out there promoting it and saying what it will fund, so we’re getting attacked for it and not getting any credit.” They claimed the green plan was the only one of Starmer’s five missions that actually represented a vision of how the country would change under a Labour government. “The rest are just things that would happen under any well-funded, well-run department,” they said. The cautious approach was welcomed by the large business contingent at the conference, with Labour’s oversubscribed “business day” having twice as many firms involved as last year and the bars packed with men in suits. The involvement of some businesses made MPs on the left of the party uneasy. Deliveroo sponsored multiple events, despite having faced criticisms over its labour practices. Another event was sponsored by Zilch, the buy-now, pay-later finance company. Another senior shadow minister said they were spending much of their conference speaking to donors and potential donors. “Schmoozing – that’s my conference,” they said. “We’ve got to do it, and people are very interested.” There was one dark cloud hanging over the conference: the devastating Hamas attacks on Israel. Party officials were on high alert for any move that could be interpreted as a sign that they still had an antisemitism problem. How far Labour has moved on from that era, however, was underlined by Starmer’s unequivocal condemnation of the brutality. He and most of the shadow cabinet attended a vigil to remember those killed while delegates packed into a Labour Friends of Israel event. Meticulous care was taken to avoid any negative headlines – or friction. In the main conference hall, there was a minute’s silence, unbroken by any protesters. Yet party unity may well be tested as Israel’s retaliation steps up in the days ahead. • This article was amended on 12 October 2023. An earlier version said that Deliveroo employed drivers on zero-hour contracts; to clarify, Deliveroo’s couriers are self-employed.