FLAGS, fiscal rules and fighting Farage were front and centre as Sir Keir Starmer came out swinging to save his floundering leadership today.

The Prime Minister used his keynote conference address to repeatedly pledge national renewal — “with flag in hand” — but offered little in terms of policy renewal for his government.

He claimed the country “stands at a fork in the road,” but was content to plough ahead on a pre-set policy route.

“We could choose decency, or we could choose division, renewal or decline; a country proud of its values, in control of its future, or one that succumbs to the politics of grievance,” he said, doing his best to offer the “vision” critics have demanded of him.

The only substantive policy change announced was the scrapping of the target of sending half of pupils to university in favour one aiming at two-thirds either going to college or taking a proper apprenticeship.

Sir Keir’s speech was marked by moments of insight, as when he said Labour “must never, never find ourselves defending a status quo that manifestly failed working people” and warned that the party had “placed too much faith in globalisation.”

He said that the banking crash of 2008 had been a moment when “a new Britain should have been born.”

Sir Keir won the loudest applause when he launched his long-awaited challenge to racism, which he prefaced by a long explanation as to why anxiety over secure borders was perfectly understandable.

“Controlling migration is a reasonable goal, but if you throw bricks and smash up private property, that’s not legitimate,” he said.

“Free speech is a British value, and we have guarded it for centuries. But if you incite racist violence and hatred that is not expressing concern, it’s criminal.

“This great party is proud of our flags. Yet if they’re painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese takeaway owner to go home, that’s not pride. That’s racism.

“If you say or imply that people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin, that people who have lived here for generations should now be deported, then mark my words — we will fight you with everything we have, because you are the enemy of national renewal.”

While Nigel Farage’s Reform was his main target, repeatedly referenced, Sir Keir also managed a sideswipe at Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who has rattled the Premier by openly coveting his job, for which most people think him much better suited.

Again invoking the Liz Truss experience, he said that “a Labour Party that cannot control spending is not a party fit to govern in our times.

“That is why the fiscal rules are non-negotiable. They protect out futures.”

In sparse references to international affairs, Sir Keir endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, pledged “iron-clad support for the brave people of Ukraine” and appeared to be tiptoeing towards a stronger critique of Brexit, a subject he has hitherto avoided religiously. 

And Sir Keir faced his political future with a flag firmly in each fist.

“Let’s fly all flags because they’re our flags. They belong to all of us, and we will never surrender them,” he said, referencing the union flag and the national flags of England, Scotland and Wales.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak welcomed Sir Keir’s speech, adding that “the way to rebuild Britain and defeat Reform is clear: deliver for working people and give them back hope for the future.”

But Scottish National Party Westminster leader Stephen Flynn warned that “one speech and more false promises won’t rebuild the trust they have so casually and quickly thrown away.”

Off-stage, the battle for Labour’s deputy leadership, between No 10 favourite, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, and the Burnham-backed, but Starmer-sacked, former Commons leader Lucy Powell, started to turn mildly aggressive.

Ms Phillipson implied that a win for Ms Powell would lead to “infighting,” with the latter hitting back that the comment was “ill-advised.”

“Debate is not dissent. I think it’s perfectly reasonable, and actually one of the reasons I stood in this contest — people want to have a debate about whether we can be better than we are currently being.

“If people think everything’s going great and swimmingly, don’t vote for me,” she said, making a point that cuts to the heart of the division in the race and probably explains Ms Powell’s apparent lead among Labour members.

Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the speech the “longest resignation speech in history” and slammed Sir Keir for not acknowledging the genocide in Gaza, which the party voted to recognise this week. ”We know why: if he acknowledged the truth, he would be admitting to the government’s complicity in the greatest crime of our time,” he said.

And Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said he hoped the new-found targeting of Reform would mean “the end of his government parroting Farage and copying his divisive politics.”