When, in 2007, the British indie rock band The Wombats first sang “I’m back in Liverpool and everything seems the same”, it is safe to assume that they were not talking about the experience of attending this year’s Labour Party conference, which returned to the port city this week in circumstances that could not have seemed more different from 12 months ago.

The 2024 event was a triumphal affair, coming on the back of a landslide general election victory. One year and several high-profile scandals later, the party is struggling in the polls and facing a revitalised right in the form of Nigel Farage’s Reform Party.