Southport journalist Martin Hovden writes: Hecklers grab spotlight from underwhelming Keir Starmer

Southport journalist Martin Hovden writes: Keir Starmer’s much anticipated leader’s speech at the Labour Conference today (Wednesday) turned into a battle between him and Corbyn supporters in the packed hall.

And sadly for him, the left-wing hecklers - many of whom are furious that he doesn’t support a £15 an hour minimum wage - clearly won by taking the spotlight off his plans for the future of the country.

The interruptions started at the very beginning of his 90-minute (far too long) and at times clunky (i.e.boring) speech and continued throughout.

The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuensberg revealed before Keir Starmer took to the stage in Brighton that his team had given him eight comeback lines if confronted by hecklers.

So the most interesting part for viewers was wondering whether eight would be enough? He didn’t use all eight, but those he did were weak.

His supporters were clearly irritated by the hecklers and fought back by giving him enthusiastic but obviously staged standing ovations every time he mentioned his humble upbringing, the NHS, slagging off Boris Johnson (to be fair he didn’t use the word scum) or being tough on crime.

The heckling was predictable when earlier in the day a party official had urged the audience to ask themselves why they joined the Labour Party - and back came the instant response “Jeremy Corbyn”, to much applause.

Halfway through his speech even his loyal fans were beginning to get bored, and I spotted one Labour MP looking at her watch (always a bad omen for any speaker - I’ve been there many times).

Before his speech he declared that “winning is more important than unity”. This sent out the completely wrong message as it gives the green light to his critics in his party to carry on having a go at him and his policies.

Hasn’t he heard of the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall”?

The public are turned off by in-fighting. They want a strong, united party, especially if that party wants to form the next government.

Is Keir Starmer going to be the next Prime Minister? No.

Will Labour win the next general election? Possibly - with a new leader.

Boris Johnson delivers his leader’s speech a week today.

Stay tuned.