Labour’s first conference as the governing party in 15 years felt more like a wake than a celebration.
Ministers and members arrived at Liverpool docks in wet and windy conditions that chimed with the mood.
Just 80 days into power and Sir Keir Starmer is already more unpopular than Rishi Sunak.
His ratings have plummeted by an astonishing 45 points in the weeks since he entered No 10 on the back of a historic landslide.
On Monday, trade unions will hold a protest outside the conference centre against punishing cuts to winter fuel payments.
Labour MPs are publicly attacking the government in the strongest terms, with Rachael Maskell saying she was “sickened” by the donation scandal, particularly at a time when money is being taken off pensioners.
Ministers and special advisers do little to hide their frustration at the dire position the government has got itself into.
Fingers are being pointed at the Treasury over the calamitous decision to axe winter fuel payments.
Insiders suggest it was one of a list of options that officials have always wanted reformed but a chancellor with political nous would have foreseen the fury such a move would have.
Ministers appearing on the broadcast media rounds are coming up with less and less credible explanations as to why the Prime Minister needed someone to buy him and his wife new clothes.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner suggested she accepted the use of a swanky flat in the United States and clothes from Lord Ali because she is working class.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she accepted donations to fund her birthday party because it was in a “work context”.
Meanwhile, Sue Gray, the PM’s chief of staff, is on the front pages nearly as often as he is as tensions in No 10 continue to be leaked.
This time last year, the atmosphere at conference was jubilant and the party was disciplined as it sensed it was on the brink of power.
How quickly it all went so wrong.
