After the Scottish disaster the night before, it was a moment for realism, sure-footedness and then fightback.

But when Gordon Brown stood up in front of Labour party grandees to turn the situation around, he tripped over the stage before he began to speak.

Presentationally it was just the latest in a long list of mishaps, but metaphorically it was the perfect summary for a painful day.

Looking desperately in need of a holiday, a tired Prime Minister thanked party workers, union representatives and members of his Cabinet for drawing up the “policies of the future”.

Yet few could have missed the fact that many of men of the future – James Purnell, Andy Burnham, even Jack Straw – were conspicuous by their absence, both from the speech and the television cameras afterwards.

In a speech delivered without notes, Mr Brown insisted the Labour Party had a “bright future” and warned there would be no return to the 1970s and 1980s. The irony was not lost on the audience, sitting inside a monolithic 1970s student hall where every curtain was closed to keep out the sunshine and prying eyes.

Against a backdrop of “New Labour” signs, Mr Brown pledged instead there would be “fairness for all”. He spoke of the need for government intervention at every stage of life - in what one observer called his “most left wing” speech of recent months.

Mr Brown even resorted to asking his audience for their empathy, telling him that the party came from "ordinary families, as we do” before lecturing them on the economic challenges of China and India.

The speech was politely, but not rapturously, received by an audience familiar with many of its themes and anecdotes.

Moments later, Cabinet minister and union leaders left the hall, and the Labour Party engaged in self-emollition in front of the cameras. Within an hour, union leaders were calling for a leadership challenge, Blairite ministers denouncing the unions and little agreement in sight.

Earlier this week one minister told The Times that the National Policy Forum weekend “would be alright – probably”. But that was before party activists and union officials watched the results of the Glasgow East by-election, which they had all assumed they would win.

At a stroke, the by-election disaster replaced harmony with discord and any pretence that the policy forum was more than an arena for ministers and union leaders to do battle was abandoned.

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