Philip Webster, Political Editor of The Times, says Tony Blair's final conference speech as Labour leader served to remind the party what they will be missing after his departure:

"It was a spectacular farewell. The Labour Party has never been sure about Tony Blair, yet it always recognised him as a winner. Today for the first time he actually said that he loved his party and there was a sense in the hall that now that he's going, they loved him back. There was definitely a feeling of 'what have they done?' ie what has the parliamentary party done in getting rid of, or at least hastening the departure of, the most successful leader in Labour history. And they gave him a hero's goodbye.

"It was quite an emotional day. I saw a lot of delegates in tears at the end. But it wasn't a sentimental speech at all. He told them a lot of home truths. He said that Labour under his successor didn't show the sort of courage that it has shown in the past ten years it will lose. He said if it doesn't get rid of hospital waiting lists, if it doesn't bring secondary school education up to standard, they won't win. And they've got to keep on changing, keep on reforming to get to that point. So the message was very tough - and they thanked him for it.

"He admitted that being a leader was tough, you made yourself unpopular but you've got to be prepared prepared to be unpopular. All of this, I think, was aimed at Gordon Brown, who Blair thinks will win, and he's saying, 'You've got to be as brave as I was, mate because you aren't going to do it otherwise."

"So no return to the comfort zone, no return to the pscychology of an opposition party. It was a very firm message. He raised all the issues on which he has become unpopular - Iraq, Lebanon, nuclear power and ID cards - he raised them all and they cheered him.

"There was no endorsement of Gordon Brown, but then we did not expect one. He cannot endorse a successor at this stage before he has announced the contest and he feels that at this stage it would also be unfair on all the other possible candidates in Cabinet for him to come out at the Labour conference and endorse Brown.

"But I thought that his tribute to Mr Brown was pretty generous, given what has happened - 'a remarkable man, a remarkable servant to his country' and none of this would have happened without him. You can't say much more than that. There was nothing to say, 'He's the man', but as I say I believe that Blair privately thinks that Brown will be the man. We may see him strongly endorse him at a later stage but at this stage he does not believe it's the right thing to do.

"So where does it all leave the leadership contest? I think we are still in the same position. Gordon Brown is still the runaway favourite but people will feel even more strongly, 'My God, he's going to have to go some to match this man Blair?'

"Other people are on the sidelines, still wondering whether to stand, but there's been no work one way or the other from Alan Johnson, John Hutton, John Reid or Alan Milburn. None of them have ruled themselves out or ruled themselves in. I would still consider it 50-50 as to whether there will be heavyweight challenger to Brown. A lot of people will wait to see how he now behaves in the months to come."

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