“Meh” is probably the colloquialism that best sums up the elements of the speeches from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves which related to the economy.

Both politicians seemed determined to remain on safe ground, as they addressed the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool.

They both appeared to studiously avoid delving into the thorny issue of Brexit in their addresses.

This is probably no great surprise, given Labour has made it plain it would not reverse Brexit and that it would not even rejoin the single market or customs union. Rejoining the single market would, at a stroke, deliver huge economic benefit relative to where we are now.

Brexit, of course, has caused and will continue to result in enormous damage to the UK economy and living standards, but Labour seems, for now at least, unwilling to tell that to the electorate.

We are a long way indeed from those days back in 2019 where Sir Keir was arguing vociferously against Brexit.

Ms Reeves told the conference: “It falls to us to show that Labour is ready to serve, ready to lead and ready to rebuild Britain. In chess you learn to think several moves ahead. But even I couldn’t have predicted the mayhem we have seen, week after week, year after year, from this Conservative Government. First austerity. Then Brexit without a plan. And then their kamikaze budget.”

Note the “Brexit without a plan”.

This is somewhat disappointing – the simple fact of the matter is that Brexit was always going to be detrimental with or without a plan.

The least damaging form of Brexit would be with the UK having membership of the single market but that is, as observed already, something Labour has ruled out.

In his speech, Sir Keir referenced Brexit in the following segment: “You know, they [the Conservatives] actually believe what comes out of their mouths. When your public services were cut to the bone and they said ‘we’re all in it together’. When they told you - to your face - that Brexit would only bring benefits to your business. When they say now that they’re taking tough decisions for you, in this cost of living crisis.”

That was the only mention of Brexit in Sir Keir’s speech.

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To be fair to the Labour leader, he is absolutely right with his observation about what was happening to public services when former Conservative prime minister David Cameron was trotting out the “all in this together” line.

What is less clear is whether the Tories do actually believe what comes out of their mouths. Surely they could not be that foolish all of the time?

Sir Keir and Ms Reeves made the right sort of noises about employment rights in their speeches - albeit there has understandably been some concern expressed by Unite general secretary Sharon Graham about Labour appearing to have rowed back on some of its pledges on this front - and about infrastructure spending.

However, crucially, the speeches at the Labour Party’s conference seemed generally to have an eye on safety. Like a football centre half who hoofs the ball away when under no pressure, rather than taking the time to be creative and do something more meaningful.

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Renationalisation of some key sectors is something at least worthy of debate at the moment, particularly given the enormous failure that the Tories’ privatisation of the likes of the UK electricity and gas sector and English water industry has turned out to be. However, it did not figure in the speeches from Ms Reeves or Sir Keir. Delegates had supported a motion from trade union Unite seeking to “reaffirm” Labour’s commitment to public ownership of railways and the energy industry. This appeared to cut no ice with the Labour leadership, however. North of the Border, ScotRail has been taken into Scottish Government ownership.

Labour’s proposal for the setting up of a publicly owned clean energy company based in Scotland, Great British Energy, was flagged by Sir Keir. This might be a start but it certainly does not look like a compelling answer to the UK’s energy sector woe.

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The speeches from Sir Keir and Ms Reeves just generally seemed to lack the extent of distinction, in terms of economic policies, that you might have expected from Labour after a long period of rule by the Tories, particularly given the right-wing nature of the current vintage of Conservatives and their dismal performance.

Labour also seems lamentably keen to embrace the British nationalism that was harnessed to deliver Brexit.

This all adds to the impression of a lack of clear blue water between Labour and the Tories.

Particularly given Labour’s lead in the polls, it would be good to see something bolder from the party in terms of a plan to turn around the UK’s economic fortunes.

However, Sir Keir and Ms Reeves seem a little too afraid of their own shadows.

The Conservatives, back in 2010, put around the message that Labour had somehow been responsible for the global financial crisis. The word “global” is enough to tell you this Tory claim was false. And former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown and his then chancellor Alistair Darling did a great job of coming up, in short order, with a sound plan to stave off collapse in the UK banking sector.

Labour needs to be bolder, and get away from the cautious broad-brush messages which sound okay but lack substance and detail and do not really offer the type of inspiring alternative that is needed to Tory policies that have choked off growth for so long.

For some reason, Labour seems afraid of being viewed as irresponsible with the public finances.

Yet the Tories had increased the UK’s public sector net debt from around £1 trillion when they came into power in 2010 to £1.8 trillion, even before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic.

Labour could do a better job of highlighting the Tories’ fiscal irresponsibility.

The other crucial thing that Labour needs to get its head around is that the public finances have two sides to them, spending and revenue.

Boosting growth would help increase tax revenues, and provide more money to spend.

Labour has, sadly, committed to embracing the Brexit drag on growth and tax revenues, which will constrain the amount of money flowing into the public coffers.

And Labour is meanwhile giving a similar impression to the Tories - that they would be running things like a tight household budget if they got into power.

A good illustration of this came back in the spring, when Sir Keir U-turned on his pledge to abolish university tuition fees in England.

Under “social justice”, one of his 10 pledges in 2020 when he was standing for Labour leader, he promised to “support the abolition of tuition fees and invest in lifelong learning”.

However, asked about this pledge on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in the spring, Sir Keir replied: “We are likely to move on from that commitment, because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation."

He added there were "other ways of approaching this", adding that his party could not "ignore the current economic situation" ahead of the next election.

This is lamentable. Abolition of university tuition fees in England would not cost that much in the scheme of things. And Labour should remember it could make big choices on spending and tax, and come up with an alternative to the bad Tory policymaking that is actually inspiring.