GORDON BROWN always delivers an alternative leader’s speech on the Monday of the Labour conference. Yesterday, it was for real. Mr Brown took for granted, as almost everyone else does, that he would be the next leader as he set out his plans for when, not if, he takes over.

Of course, he did not say anything so explicit. Mr Brown is a good at evasions. For instance, he proclaimed that “growth has been sustained in every year”, without mentioning the sharp reduction in growth forecasts he conceded in Washington only a few days ago.

He also talked about “stability in industrial relations”, which means that the unions will not get what they want on secondary picketing despite yesterday’s votes.

But his main theme was his own plans. Tony Blair, he said, deserved “huge credit not just for winning three elections but for leading the Labour Party for more than a decade”. And in the same way, he “also deserves credit for now asking us and challenging us as a party to begin to plan ahead”.

That is not what you say about a leader you expect to be around for some time. It is the language of a farewell party, from the new chairman thanking the departing one for all his efforts as he makes the presentation, perhaps of Cliff Richards’ Golden Hits.

Mr Brown’s version of a stable and orderly transition now has a hint of urgency. “Because the renewal of new Labour will be as profound a challenge, as rigorous a task and as great an achievement as the creation of new Labour, I will— in the next year— visit every region and nation of our country . . . to discuss the economic, social and constitutional changes we need to build for the future”.

So the new boss is going round the company’s factories before the old one has gone. It later emerged that Mr Brown’s nationwide tour is part of the Treasury’s preliminary policy review ahead of the 2007 spending decisions.

Note the key phrase, “in the next year”. This was widely taken as giving notice to Mr Blair that, in 12 months’ time, he should announce a formal deadline for his departure. The implication is that renewal should not be too long delayed, but cannot really start until Mr Blair has gone.

Moreover, he sought to draw a line under the Blair era in saying that Labour had not talked enough about the ethical foundations of policies, “the moral basis of the society we seek to create”. So out with spin, hobnobbing with the wealthy and in with a new moralism.

A gloss was provided by Ed Balls, the chief Brown guru, who spoke alongside Tony (Lord) Giddens, the leading analyst of the Third Way, at The Times fringe meeting. Both emphasised the need for policy renewal. Mr Balls argued for a shift away from the defensive triangulation strategy, defining new Labour by what it was not, to a more confident, positive, approach.

Such is the climate of mutual suspicion now that Mr Brown risks being seen as presumptuous.

Just as the hard-core Brownites still fear that they will be double-crossed by Mr Blair who will want to stay on for longer to secure his “legacy”, so the zealous Blairites are watching out for any attempt by the Brownites to push out their man prematurely.

Anyway, expect a reminder in today’s speech from Mr Blair that he is still very much in charge and has plenty which he still wants to achieve.

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