Sir Keir Starmer addressed not one but two conference halls in Liverpool after his counterpart, Rishi Sunak, was forced to address a scaled-down audience at the Tory Party Conference.
The Labour leader combined hard politics, bleak assessments of the state of the country and Labour’s vision for national renewal during his address.
He also mocked the Prime Minister for keeping a “close watch on the cost-of-living crisis – from the vantage point of his short-haul helicopter”.
But it was the sheer amount of people in attendance that got some people talking on social media.
Starmer packed out not just the main auditorium but also an overflow hall just a week after the Tories struggled to fill just one scaled-down hall.
Grant Shapps, the recently appointed Defence Minister, delivered a speech which seemed to fall on deaf ears. It was debatable whether the room was even at half-capacity for the Cabinet member, and he needed his aides to occupy spaces at the front of the crowd.
James Cleverly and David Davies were also caught cold by the low turn-out, as both politicians gave addresses to sparsely-populated rooms.
