Though the freebies scandal soured the start of conference, the party can still shake off despondency and regain the moral high ground

With the hail of bad freebie stories echoing the Mersey downpour, this looked set to be a less joyous conference than was due a party that had just gone from its worst defeat since 1935 to a stunning majority in one jump. But that victory was still in the air: the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, boasted there are more female Labour MPs than all the Tories on the opposition bench put together; and time and again people assail you with astonished tales of their local forever-Tory seat gone Labour – East Thanet, Colchester, Hertford and Stortford.

However, there is no escaping it: the freebies scandal soured the opening atmosphere. The FT splashed that public confidence and spending was spiralling down after the “‘Things will get worse’ before they get better” foreboding from Keir Starmer. No one disputes that Labour inherited a country in an abysmal state, but with too much “no jam today” it overdid the workhouse gruel. One wise headteacher told me that Labour’s task felt to her like taking over a failing school. And with polls sinking, the urgent task was to cast out fear with a breath of hope.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist