Labour in chaos: what are the party’s options?

Labour is in an almighty mess at the moment. Those involved in the leadership campaigns are surprised by how the mood in the party has changed from quite open acceptance of a need to change in the days after the election defeat to angry dissent when change is suggested, as evidenced by the reaction to Harriet Harman’s welfare policies this week. The party isn’t quite having a row about what it should stand for at the next election, preferring instead to argue about how it does opposition for the next eight weeks, most of which are in Parliamentary recess. Here are the various options for what Labour does, both in those eight weeks, and once it gets its new leader.

– Adopt all Tory policies because that’s what the electorate want.

No-one is advocating this in the leadership contest: for instance, all four candidates oppose the 1 per cent public sector pay freeze.