What to make of that?

-Never going to be easy making a speech to an empty room. Nor is Starmer ever going to be the best orator.
-Little detail but those expecting that missing the point
-this was about setting up dividing lines and conceptual framework to view the pandemic. https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1362359154967515136

-With vaccine clear Labour needs to move away from simplistic narrative about competence which has dominated Starmer’s response so far .
-Instead this was the first time I’ve seen a real attempt made by Lab to tell an alternative story about the pandemic and what has happened.

-He’s doing so by rooting the mostly poor response of the British state to the pandemic in the decade of Conservative govt which went before.
-in that respect you can see this as the opening attempt by Starmer to do what Cameron did to Labour (and the story he told) about 2008.

-in that respect, irrespective of detail; it is a significant speech. Right now the only narrative in town is that this was a freak event which no govt could control. Ie exactly what Lab’s defence of 08 was. Cameron slowly shredded that over 2 years.

-Starmer would doubtless argue that his case is yet stronger than Cameron’s was because of countless decisions about the public realm taken over the last decade. He’d doubtless also argue that Brown’s response in 08 was comprehensively stronger than the Conservatives’ to Covid.

-but will it work? We can’t know whether voters will see a financial crisis which was manmade as fundamentally different to a pandemic. Much of the press was receptive to Cameron’s message in 08 and almost certainly won’t be to Starmer.

-But Labour have made the calculation that if they don’t start to tell that story, the narrative which will come to dominate is one of unalloyed British success on the vaccine. This is their first attempt, Attlee style to win the peace.

The weakest sections of the speech were on about a “new relationship” with business, which was nebulous. Felt as if included simply to send a reminder that he’s more pro biz than the last guy.

As I reported on NN yesterday, despite huge spending and intervention from the govt, Starmer’s team does not believe that the Conservatives have truly changed their view of political economy. They believe Sunak and others will be agitating for deficit reduction in short order...

...and that is their opening. Again seems to me that Starmer was setting out that dividing line for the future.

There’s been grumbling from the left. But was a speech anchored in the theme of inequality. In many respects it was a speech not so dissimilar to that which Corbyn or McDonnell might have delivered were they still in post.

This report from last night’s Newsnight from me and @hattmarris84 on Starmer’s leadership and where Labour is going next: https://twitter.com/bbcnewsnight/status/1362407622431883270

Talking to Labour MPs most are pleased with the speech as far as it goes but looking as to what comes next. Is there follow through, its themes transferred to the next speech and the one after that, party comms and yes policy? Ie is it a foundation which is actually built on?

Other concern I've picked up from some Lab MPs is that it's too late- the narrative around Covid has already been set and will be very difficult to shift. Some commented it would have been far better to make these arguments when the govt had no good news to report.