The National:

AS the Labour conference finally draws to a close, it’s not only Keir Starmer breathing a sigh of relief.

The Labour leader has had a rocky conference, with infighting dominating the agenda despite a Tory government lumbering from crisis to crisis.

Here are some of the most embarrassing moments from the conference.

1: Keir Starmer heckled during his keynote speech.

The National: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner listen as shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves gives her keynote speech at the Labour Party conference

Starmer claimed the consistent taunts from opponents were “helpful” to his cause, but all the spin in the world won’t change the fact that being heckled during the keynote speech you’re delivering to your own party is not a good look.

Responding mid-speech, Starmer jibed: “Normally at this time on a Wednesday it's the Tories heckling me, doesn't bother me then and doesn't bother me now.”

Except there’s a pretty big difference between being taunted by your actual opponents and the people who you share a political party with.

2: David Evans asks why people joined Labour.

The Labour party’s acting general secretary, David Evans, faced a confirmation vote at the conference. He won it, by 57% to 43% – but allegations from the left of a stitch-up surrounded the whole affair.

Claims were made that some left-wing delegates, who the party feared would vote against Evans, were suspended ahead of conference for that reason.

Either way, for a man unsure of his position, Evans asked a silly question during his speech.

“Everybody remembers why they joined Labour, what was it for you?” he asked.

“Jeremy Corbyn”, came the replies from the crowd…

3: Jackie Baillie accuses the SNP of stealing votes.

Scottish Labour’s deputy leader has sat in Holyrood since its creation, so you’d be forgiven for thinking she’d got the hang of politics by now. Apparently not.

“They want to steal our voters”, she said of the SNP.

The sheer cheek of one political party wanting to take votes from another.

Toni Giugliano, who ran against Baillie in her Dumbarton constituency in May’s election, responded: “[Labour] don’t have many voters left. In fact there’s not a single constituency they can win on their own. Hence…”

He then shared a Telegraph story about Baillie asking for “Tory help” to hold onto her seat.

Seems she does understand stealing votes after all.

4: Andy Burnham’s nationalism soundbite.

Andy Burnham certainly hasn’t been quiet at the Labour conference, probably as he still has his sights set on the leadership role.

However, one of his proclamations had some implications which he likely didn’t think through.

“Nationalism of any kind is never a force for good in the long-run,” he claimed at a Labour Friends of Scotland event.

That line might not fly so well at a Labour Friends of Ireland event...

The National: Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham speaks at the Labour Party conference in Brighton

He also might want to have a word with his boss Keir Starmer, who claimed the party were all “patriots” during his speech.

Unless, of course, Burnham doesn’t actually think that “nationalism of any kind is never a force for good”, but was just out to grab some headlines.

5: Keir Starmer’s odd claim about giving blood.

Keir Starmer’s got a soft spot for Gordon Brown, who is apparently going to settle the issue of the Union. If all he’s got is the fact that Scots like watching Coronation Street then we can all see how that’s going to go.

Either way, the Labour leader thought quoting Brown in his speech would be a nice idea.

He said: “As Gordon Brown said recently, when a Welsh or Scottish woman gives blood, she doesn’t demand an assurance that it must not go to an English patient.”

The baffling comment has not gone unnoticed, and it doesn’t seem to have quite had the effect Starmer probably envisaged.

6: Anas Sarwar reveals what we already knew.

The National:

In a truly baffling comment, the Scottish Labour leader revealed that his own party was simply pretending to function during May’s Holyrood election and actually had no clue at all what they were doing.

Who could have guessed? The result only saw Labour return their lowest number of MSPs ever.

Apparently not Keir Starmer, who praised the “fantastic leadership of Anas Sarwar”.

Leading a party in chaos to their worst-ever election result doesn’t count as “fantastic” in our book, but talent has been thin on the ground among Labour leadership.

7: Keir Starmer can’t face the youth.

The Labour leader suffered through a car-crash interview on the BBC, with Andrew Marr highlighting how he had walked back on pledges he made to get elected leader.

But Marr is a veteran, with decades of experience.

It seems making Starmer squirm doesn’t take anything like that kind of gravitas though, as he failed to even acknowledge one young activist who tried to ask him if he would commit £85bn to fight the climate crisis.

The Labour leader’s attitude was widely condemned, with the SNP’s Ross Colquhoun quipping: “Coincidentally, this is also the attitude that Labour have to the people of Scotland.”