Is Labour ready for poll fight?

By Brian Wheeler
Political reporter, BBC News, Labour spring conference

Mr Brown had to settle activists' nerves

So did they go away with "fire in their bellies"?

There was certainly little to fire up the media in Birmingham. Few policy announcements or landmark moments in politics.

But that was never really the point of this weekend.

It was all about 1 May - and Labour's fear that it could lose big in local elections in England Wales and London - setting the tone for a future general election.

The first job for Gordon Brown and his team was to settle activists' nerves after a torrid few months of negative headlines and plunging poll ratings - and give them a tune to whistle on the doorsteps in the run-up to polling day.

"The weather has not really been with us in the past few months," said Chris Clark, the prospective Labour candidate in Ashford, Kent, as the conference was closing.

"I think this weekend we have started to reclaim the political weather."

Class resentments

The biggest cloud on Labour's horizon - judging by the speeches from the platform - is Boris Johnson.

The Tory London mayoral candidate presents a big juicy target for Labour politicians looking to stir up traditional class resentments.

After all, the reasoning must go, if people are prepared to vote in one Old Etonian "toff" they will have no problem voting in another - Mr Johnson's old friend and Bullingdon Club quaffing partner David Cameron.

Mr Brown has endured months of upheaval

So the big guns lined up to attack Mr Johnson - even if they could not seem to decide whether to portray him as a menace to decent society or a bit of clown.

Hazel Blears dubbed him a "nasty, right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends like Conrad Black". Ed Balls derided him as "George W Boris", saying he denied the dangers of climate change.

Harriet Harman borrowed Tony Blair's old line of attack against William Hague - good jokes, shame about the policies.

"I've got news for you," she thundered from the platform in her closing speech. "You should stick to the jokes - Ken will stick to running London".

Charisma

Delegates heading for the exits were in little doubt about the danger posed by Mr Johnson to Labour's electoral prospects.

But there was also a sense that the party wants to get on quietly with the business of government after the upheavals of the past few months.

"I think there is a sense that they want to keep some stuff back," said Michael Edwards, the deputy leader of Nottingham City Council.

The trick Labour must pull off - apart from coming up with a fresh ideas for its next manifesto - is to find a way of convincing people it is delivering on bread and butter issues such as patient waiting times and school results, he argued.

Boris Johnson was targeted by Labour's big guns

There was the expected praise for Gordon Brown from delegates - tempered by a sense that he may never match Tony Blair in the charisma stakes.

"He has never been a rabble rouser but I have actually been surprised at how quickly he has stepped into the role of leader," said Paul Connellan, chairman of the Altrincham and Sale Labour Party.

Sandra Samuels, a member of Labour's national policy forum who is hoping to stand in Birmingham Ladywood when Clare Short steps down, said: "Blair is an individual that has charisma - Brown is working on it.

"At this stage - after 10 years of a Labour government - people want serious politics and Brown is right for the times."