Has Priti Patel found the answer to Corbynism?

What’s the antidote to Corbyn? Thatcher, according to Priti Patel. Britain’s former PM might be public enemy number one in the eyes of the Corbynistas, but it’s vital the Tories return to Thatcher’s ideas and her way of doing things. That, at least, is the verdict of Patel, the Brexit-backing former international development secretary. Patel said that Britain is now at a crossroads: a similar juncture to the one it faced when Thatcher came to power in the seventies. Back then, she said, regressive socialism was in danger of taking control. The same is happening now, according to the Tory MP, and it’s vital that the Conservatives and the government learns from a prime minister that ‘fought the left very successfully’.

It might seem like a distant memory now, but it’s worth remembering that the Tory party’s current leader was once frequently compared to Thatcher. A snap election disaster and various blunders since have put paid to May ever again being seen as the new Iron Lady. But is there any way that the Tories under May – and her apparently gloomy chancellor, Philip Hammond – can imitate Thatcher? Patel wasn’t optimistic, and it’s hard to find fault with her withering analysis of what is going wrong with the current direction of the government:

‘We are the party in government and the reality is that if we want to be really regressive in our language, and in our outlook, we are going to be quite unappealing. So I would have thought our party leaders, people at the top of our party and government…they have got so many levers they can use to… (they need to) be ambitious for our country. Politics is about people. Politics is about your country’s place in the world, and I don’t doubt their motivations at all.