It had been billed as the Jeremy Corbyn relaunch. After several weeks of hibernation in which the Labour leader had been on his allotment rather than engaging with the crisis in the NHS or the Brexit shambles, Corbyn came out with all guns blazing. But after a morning shambles of media interviews in which he appeared to be already distancing himself from pre-leaked extracts of a speech he had yet to make, it felt like Corbyn was going for broke with multiple, simultaneous relaunches. If you didn’t like Corbyn 2.0, no problem. You could always try Corbyn 3.0. Failing that you could just wait for Corbyn 4.0.

The relaunch proper took place in a community hall on the edge of Peterborough in front of an audience of about 45 party members, with no one knowing quite what to expect. We had been told that this was to be Corbyn’s declaration of Brexit intent, but since he had spent most of the morning talking about how he had long wanted to impose a maximum salary – though he had never quite got round to working out what that maximum should be – almost anything was possible.

Corbyn began by having a go at the Tories for being in a complete mess over Brexit and not having a clue about what their starting negotiating position was. This was an open goal and Corbyn didn’t miss, though he did flirt with danger by implying that Labour would give the £350m of EU savings that Boris had promised, but had never existed, to the NHS.

Things really began to get confusing, though, when Corbyn got on to freedom of labour. The previous day his spokesman had said that, after pressure from many Labour MPs whose constituents were concerned about migration, Corbyn was no longer wedded to the principle of free movement. No one appeared to have told Corbyn this, though, as he had told the Today programme: “We’re not saying anyone can’t come here.” Come the afternoon in Peterborough, Corbyn sought to clarify matters. “Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle,” he said. “But – I don’t want to be misinterpreted – nor do we rule it out.”

There was little danger of anyone misinterpreting that, because to do that would have involved the possibility of someone interpreting it correctly. Or at all. As sentences go, it is one of the more opaque yet offered on Brexit. And the bar is staggeringly high. Was Corbyn for or against freedom of movement? Anyone’s guess.

He did repeatedly annexe Vote Leave’s mantra of taking back control, but the control he wanted to take back seemed more about insisting that any migrants working in the UK should be paid a decent wage rather than reducing the number of immigrants.

Corbyn implied that Labour would give the £350m of EU savings that Boris had promised, but had never existed, to the NHS. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

It was a nice sentiment but not quite what the disaffected working class Labour voters had been hoping to hear. Though perhaps it doesn’t matter as Labour is likely to have little say in the Brexit negotiations. The responsibility for failure will belong to the Tories.

Still, the day had given Corbyn some time to do some more thinking about the maximum wage, as he had now decided to scrap that idea in favour of a maximum ratio in pay between the highest- and lowest-paid workers in any company. He didn’t know if this was practical as the only other country to have tried it – Egypt – had abandoned it as unworkable, but it made a great soundbite. “We could do it this way,” he said. “Or we could do it that way.” And if that failed? “We could do it another way.”

Or we could not do it at all. But at least Corbyn had finally hit on a sentiment that resonated with those people who felt that the government and economy weren’t working for them. Whether he had chanced upon it by accident or by design was anyone’s guess. The Labour spin doctors had promised Corbyn would now be following the Donald Trump playbook of saying anything that came into his head and repeating the bits the punters seemed to like. In which case, Corbyn 5.0 and 6.0 can’t be far away. I guess we’ll find out for sure when he starts tweeting that Judi Dench is an overrated actress. With exclamation marks!!