Dr Mo Mowlam's status as conference darling was spectacularly confirmed yesterday when Mr Blair's tribute to her role in securing the Belfast Agreement won the Secretary of State a rousing standing ovation from Labour delegates.
Party sources thought it unprecedented for a prime minister's conference speech to be halted by a standing ovation for another cabinet member. And for Mr David Trimble and Mr Seamus Mallon, the spontaneous two-minute ovation provided ample confirmation of Dr Mowlam's standing in her party.
Mr Blair asked conference to imagine "the pride I felt in this country" when he received a call from Nelson Mandela saying that Northern Ireland had "cast a beacon of hope across the world".
There remained a lot to sort out, said Mr Blair, in reference to decommissioning and the creation of the new executive. And they would never forget the tragedy of Omagh. But, he said, "it was there that terror finally lost its power to divide. Instead it unified."
So how was it done? the Prime Minister asked rhetorically. "It took the British, Irish and Americans standing together as never before. And I thank Bertie Ahern for what he has done and I thank Bill Clinton, too." Then, triggering that ovation, he added: "It took our one and only Mo."
As the applause subsided Mr Blair paid tribute to the people.
"Even in the final hours of the Good Friday talks, with the deadline passing, black coffee on tap, tables being thumped, exhausted bodies on sofas strewn with drafts and redrafts; at 4.30 in the morning standing with my back to the door saying to one side about to walk out, you're not going till we've sorted this; even then I could feel the will of that vast decent majority of people urging us on. The only road they want to march down is the road to the future."
He went on: "It takes people to lead them. People like David Trimble and John Hume and Seamus Mallon. And yes, it takes people like Gerry Adams, David Ervine and Gary McMichael too. It takes them to close their ears to the prejudices of their own parties and to listen to the prayers of the people for peace."
Most of all, said Mr Blair, "it takes us all to work together; as a community; to set a course and stick to it; not get deflected; listen to any criticism but not be paralysed by it; state our destination and march with a firm step toward it, through the thickets of disillusion, the ambush of the oppositionalists for whom all change is betrayal and who long for our failure."
Places had been reserved inside the conference hall for Mr Gerry Adams and a number of colleagues from Sinn Fein. But the late arrival of Mr Adams's flight meant he listened to the speech on a relay system. Mr Blair will meet Mr Adams this morning, and Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon this afternoon.
Mr Trimble last night said he was not the person being referred to by Mr Blair as having had to be prevented from walking out of the negotiations in the early hours of Good Friday.