When Ed Miliband made his first conference speech as Labour leader, he spoke at length about how his family had as refugees fleeing persecution, been welcomed in the UK.

But he also acknowledged that Labour had spectacularly failed to address voters' concerns about immigration, saying: "You wanted your concerns about the impact of immigration on communities to be heard, and I understand your frustration that we didn't seem to be on your side."

Labour still didn't seem on the voters' side at the general election in 2015. The result was that thousands of voters who had previously supported the party switched allegiance and went over to Ukip - or sat on their hands and stayed home.

This was not for the want of trying. When Ed came down to Rochester and Strood during the by-election triggered by the defection of Mark Reckless, he chose to make immigration the focus of his keynote speech.

It was a forlorn attempt to position the party as equally tough on immigration as any of the others. It didn't cut through, as I suspect he and his aides probably knew it wouldn't.

So, what is Jeremy Corbyn's take? It's hard to know, as it didn't get a single mention during his speech - although refugees, international affairs and the Middle East did.

Even though his address could not possibly sketch out his views on every single issue, it seemed odd to omit any reference to the subject - given that one of the party's greatest challenges is to offer a plausible, credible programme that will draw back disaffected supporters.

Corbyn may have judged that the apparent shift in the public mood over refugees meant that the issue has dropped down the agenda.

He may also believe that the influx of thousands of new, younger, members to the party have a more rounded view of immigration.

He is mistaken.

Kent has been at the forefront of the immigration crisis for years. A benign economy meant it was less of a factor during the Blair years (when Labour had eight MPs).

Corbyn believes that a mass house-building programme and tough action on unscrupulous landlords, along with dealing with wage compression is a remedy but won't - or is reluctant to - link these explicitly to immigration.

Even in post-speech interviews today, he has chosen to praise migrants for their contribution to public services, saying: “Don’t look upon immigration as necessarily a problem”.

His analysis is half right. It has been left to Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary, to tackle the other side of the argument, saying in a speech:

'I don't want Labour people avoiding voters' eyes on the doorstep on this subject'.

He just might have had his leader in mind.