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Brighton can be tricky for Labour leaders. Kinnock famously fell in the sea, strolling on the beach for the cameras.

But this week, Jeremy Corbyn didn’t put a foot wrong.

All ­uncertainty about his leadership swept away by a red tide of a ­brilliant election manifesto and campaign.

This was my 51st conference and I’ve never seen anything like it.

Back in the 80s one MP told a delegate at Brighton, “come on in, the blood’s lovely.” Such was the bitterness and division in Labour back then.

Now we really are united. A record 7,000 members visited, with a huge enthusiasm to discuss ideas and how to win the election.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

All conferences have been a struggle between the left, right, and centre groups, with debates determined by conference votes.

A group of 30 Labour MPs, about 11 per cent of our total number members in parliament – a few not the many – tried to turn conference into a debate and vote on Brexit.

They were defeated by delegates, many from the pro-Corbyn group Momentum, wanting to talk about things that matter to the many – health, education and transport.

Transitional access to the customs union is rarely discussed in the pubs and clubs of Hull.

I was invited to a debate on giving more power to the North, accepting without realising Momentum had organised it.

But it wasn’t full of young turks wanting to attack previous Labour governments. There were 150 people – young, old and middle-aged – interested in the issues of a proper devolution for the North and regional policy.

Momentum held many, many meetings with hundreds upon hundreds queuing to attend their debates, many who didn’t have a ticket for the conference. This will have a huge influence on policy development in the party. And that excites me because we need the politics of ideas and organisation.

Take the Private Finance Initiative, where Governments, including the one I served in, used private cash to build hospitals and schools.

Many early contracts were badly drawn up and have hamstrung NHS trusts with high interest payments.

John McDonnell’s pledge to stop new PFI contracts, review existing ones and take back bad ones to pay them off at lower rates is welcome.

But John, don’t rule out intelligent agreements between public and private, which have actually saved jobs and factories.

For example in York in 1992, British Rail were closing a train coach plant because they weren’t allowed to borrow any more from the Treasury.

But Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John Smith and I put together leasing arrangements using private cash. The Tories backed our plan and we saved the plant.

In 1997 I was faced with the company behind the Channel Tunnel High Speed Link, called HS1, which had been given £3billion of assets by the Tory government, demanding an extra £2billion.

I took it back into public ownership, arranged bond financing, which did not increase borrowing and so did not become public debt.

Manchester Airport was granted the right by Gordon Brown to borrow money against its assets, denied by previous Treasury rules on public sector borrowing.

It is now a success story, along with other local authority airports.

But I opposed PFIs for hospitals and schools. Neither had an income flow from charges and would create greater public debt and borrowing, and be opened up to privatisation.

What we should have done in Government was to let councils borrow against housing rental income, because bankers always loan against guaranteed income.

Brighton rocked this week. With ideas, with passion and unity.

And I’ve never been more excited.