David Skelton

Margaret Thatcher: friend of the unions?

When Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 election, she was helped into Downing Street by what many of today’s politicians would regard as an unlikely group of Tory voters. The votes of trade unionists were crucial to Margaret Thatcher beating Jim Callaghan in 1979.

And this didn’t happen by accident – Mrs Thatcher, the one-time President of the Dartford branch of Conservative Trade Unionists had made active efforts to appeal to those moderate trade unionists who felt let down by their leaders. After becoming leader in 1975, she set out to revive Conservative Trade Unionists. By the 1979 election, the organisation had 250 branches and was able to hold a pre-election rally at Wembley.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Conservatives courted trade unionists. It was a Conservative Prime Minister, the Earl of Derby who, encouraged by Disraeli, as with the 1867 Reform Act, legalised trade unions in 1867. In an otherwise unmemorable speech, Ed Miliband yesterday quoted Derby when he said that, previously, ‘the voices of Manchester, of Birmingham, of Leeds, and of all the other important centres of manufacturing industry were absolutely unheard.’

Following on from this, Disraeli’s Government, in the teeth of fierce opposition from Gladstone’s Liberals, legalised picketing and increased the power of workers to enforce contracts. Given that this was part of an impressive batch of social reform, it’s little wonder that an early Labour-Liberal MP commented that, ‘the Tories have done more for the working class in five years than the Liberals did in fifty.’ Harold Macmillan also made clear that he believed that Conservative success in the 1950s was to an extent down to the support of trade unionists for the Conservatives.

Today’s Conservatives could learn from their predecessors when it comes to appealing to appealing to ordinary trade union members, who are so badly represented by union leaders.

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