Labour members opposed to Jeremy Corbyn's left-wing politics have been told to stop carping from the sidelines by a leading trade unionist.
Grahame Smith, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), said the new UK leader had put forward a "real alternative to the economic idiocy of austerity and the vindictiveness of welfare cuts".
He used his speech to the Scottish Labour Party Conference in Perth to criticise figures in the party who have questioned his leadership.
Although Mr Corbyn won the leadership election with a clear majority, he did not win the backing of all of the party's MPs while new Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has revealed she voted for leadership rival Yvette Cooper.
Mr Smith insisted Mr Corbyn's election campaign had "struck a chord with Labour members and supporters across the country, and offered hope of a real alternative to the economic idiocy of austerity and the vindictiveness of welfare cuts and persistent attacks on the welfare state".
After the veteran left-winger received "such a substantial mandate" from party members, Mr Smith said it is "frustrating" there are "some people continuing to carp from the sidelines".
The STUC general secretary said: "I have been astonished by the outburst of some of those formerly in the leadership of the Labour Party and who, in the past, were the first to level accusations of disloyalty and to accuse the unions in particular of threatening the party's electoral chances if their leadership and policy choices were questioned.
"In falling over themselves to offer comment to the right-wing press, it seems that they fail to recognise that they lost the argument - and lost it spectacularly - that there is a real desire for change, a change from what they had to offer."
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne were attacked for having raised "the standard of Thatcherism" to new heights by Mr Smith, who hit out at their "shameless, evidence-bereft approach to macroeconomic policy".
He went on to stress the alternative policies put forward by Mr Corbyn must not be portrayed as being "extremist".
Mr Smith said: "They are common-sense policies that are only radical because they challenge a prevailing orthodoxy, an orthodoxy incidentally that has utterly failed working-class communities."
He insisted: "It is not extreme to be against austerity. It is not extreme to be pro trade union.
"It is not extreme to believe that reducing inequality and economic competitiveness can be complementary and not competing objectives.
"It is not extreme to believe in progressive taxation, or indeed, that if we want high quality public services we all might have to pay more tax.
"It is certainly not extreme to question the morality or economic efficacy of spending £167 billion on Trident renewal.
"Many of the policies we advocate are considered the norm elsewhere.
"The French would think it extreme not to have a publicly-owned and run rail system.
"The Germans would think it extreme not to actively support its manufacturing sector or not to recognise the central role of unions and collective bargaining or require its companies to pay 30% corporation tax.
"The Scandinavians would think it extreme not to have a high level of union membership - 75% in Finland and Sweden - or to pay higher taxes for better public services. The Norwegians would think it extreme not to have a state-owned oil company."
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