The prime minister has a huge chance in the next few days to spell out to his party, and to the public, exactly where he stands, and exactly what he believes in specific terms.

After a horrible summer, and a very tricky year, it is desperately needed if the party is to get back on track.

“There is a way through this, but he has to assert himself,” says one cabinet minister, desperate for the prime minister to remind his party and the country why they elected him in the first place.

Ministers and Downing Street are frustrated by chatter about Starmer’s leadership, especially the behaviour of Andy Burnahm in recent days.

“Everyone needs to just shut up and get on with their own jobs,” one government source says.

Another says: “the Burnham stuff is just ridiculous.”

“He doesn’t have a seat in Parliament, wouldn’t necessarily find or win one,” and one minister snipes, “any chance to have a dig – Burnham will never miss an opportunity”.

They predict confidently, the party “doesn’t want regicide or disruption, they just want us to do well”.

But leadership chatter is a symbol that all is not well. And that sense of assurance is far from universal.

One senior figure outside government warns me, “they don’t realise they are in serious, serious trouble – this is literally a head-in-hands-moment”.

There are real discussions in different pockets of the Labour movement about whether Starmer should still lead the party.

And the sweaty bars and fringe meetings of the party conference provide the perfect backdrop for those out to make trouble.

Yet it’s clear from multiple conversations that it’s not only mischief makers who are pondering what to do.

“Frustration is wide and deep,” says a senior MP.

One insider who has been part of conversations about the chances of changing the leader says, “it’s not flighty people, not just newbies without a clue, they’re not idiots”.

Even on the government payroll one minister worries, “the country is desperate for a disrupter, and it’s just not who he is,” questioning whether Starmer can be the right man for this political moment.

Here’s the fundamental question, asked by many, expressed by one senior figure: “Do we think Keir can improve? People don’t think he can, although they wish he would. But there is a sinking feeling.”