The mood among Labour MPs these days follows Edgar’s law. This states that the scale of any misfortune can only be measured against unknown future disasters. As Shakespeare has the banished son of the blinded Earl of Gloucester say in King Lear: “The worst is not, so long as we can say ‘this is the worst’.”

According to Edgar’s law, there is no opinion poll so gloomy for Labour that it can’t be followed by one even bleaker; no fiscal forecast so bad that the Treasury can’t aggravate it with contradictory signals on tax; no misgivings about Keir Starmer that can’t be amplified by malevolent briefing about a leadership challenge; no social policy so nauseating to the party faithful that it can’t be made grosser still with a relish of cruelty.

In that context, this week’s announcement of plans that aim to limit the number of refugees admitted to the UK, modelled on a notoriously mean Danish system, went down less badly with Labour MPs than might have been expected. There were sparks of backbench anger but no conflagration of dissent. No 10 was relieved. It helped that the home secretary had taken steps to explain the political imperative of the measures to colleagues in advance and in private. The plan landed on a rolled pitch.

Tightening asylum rules is not Labour’s comfort zone, but the current system is clearly........

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