Why Starmer praised Thatcher

In an event that almost forms part of Britain’s unwritten constitution, if not quite as regular an occurrence as Big Ben’s bongs, a Labour leader has praised Margaret Thatcher. Keir Starmer has now expressed his admiration for the woman who helped keep his party out of office for eighteen years.

That this made the news only shows how limited the time horizons of most political journalists are. For every Labour leader since Tony Blair has at one point or another done the exact same thing. The only notable exception is Jeremy Corbyn, who is no longer a member of the parliamentary Labour party.

They all do it for precisely the same reason: to secure the support of those for whom Thatcher remains a well-regarded figure. It isn’t big and it isn’t clever: but it is a rite of passage they have, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, all undergone.

Despite what some on the left might think, Thatcher remains a popular figure – certainly more than her prime ministerial counterparts, and especially with Conservative voters. In 2019, a YouGov poll revealed that the public considered her the greatest post-war incumbent of No. 10, beating Winston Churchill by a nose and leaving all Labour prime ministers to eat her dust.

But, as was the case during her time in power, this does not necessarily mean Britons universally like Thatcher’s policies. Nevertheless, they do admire her perceived leadership qualities, especially how far she stuck to what she believed in, and the fact that she was strong and decisive. What party leader would not want to be associated with those characteristics? Rishi Sunak certainly would. So, in the same way an ugly man stands next to a handsome friend in the hope of attracting female attention, Labour leaders have strategically dropped Thatcher’s name into their articles and speeches.

The first to do this was Tony Blair. He did it with the greatest sincerity and also with the most compelling need. Blair genuinely believed Thatcher’s various reforms in government, many of which reversed those established by the 1945 Attlee administration, were necessary given the irresistible economic change. In opposition, and often in the pages of the Sun, Blair said there could be no going back on privatisation or the reduction of trade union power. As he admitted in his memoirs, saying this ‘immediately opened the ears’ of many who had voted for the Conservatives in four successive general elections to what New Labour had to say. 

If Gordon Brown was regarded as more ‘Old Labour’ than Blair, this did not stop him calling Thatcher a ‘conviction politician’ who ‘saw the need for change during his early days as prime minister. He even invited her for tea at No. 10 and happily posed for photographs with the now doddery former Tory leader. He did this because he wanted to counter impressions that he was a tribal party politician and that instead his was a pragmatic ‘government all the talents’.

In 2011, Ed Miliband – then still nicknamed ‘Red Ed’ in the right-wing tabloids – told delegates to Labour’s annual conference that Thatcher had introduced many necessary reforms, such as selling council houses and cutting punitive income tax rates. Miliband did this to establish himself – like Thatcher – as wanting to break a stale and failing consensus.

None of these leaders praised Thatcher without significant (but under-reported) qualifications. Even Blair criticised her dogmatic dislike for government; he claimed this had greatly harmed Britain’s social fabric. The longer he was in office the more such reservations asserted themselves. Indeed, Miliband cited Thatcher when wanting to reverse many of the free market policies she was responsible for.

And so, in this by now time-honoured Labour tradition, we come to Keir Starmer. In the Sunday Telegraph he praised Thatcher for effecting ‘meaningful change’ while in office. He extended this praise to Clement Attlee and Tony Blair too – but this interested journalists much less. In making these comparisons, Starmer was associating himself with such titans of the past. He argued he had achieved the same thing in his party and hoped to do the same for the country once in Downing Street.

Of course, and not at all coincidentally, ‘change’ is something many voters have recently been crying out for. So much so, that despite thirteen years of Conservative government, even Rishi Sunak felt obliged to claim he would be the ‘change’ candidate at the next election.

On BBC Radio 4, the Labour leader confirmed his article ‘doesn’t mean I agree with what she did’. He nonetheless took the opportunity to reaffirm how much he admired Thatcher for having had a ‘mission’ and ‘driving sense of purpose’ – but only to suggest that he too possesses those qualities. Indeed, Starmer has ‘five missions’ designed to purposefully transform Britain about which most voters are still blissfully unaware.

It is unlikely Starmer will convince many more 2019 Conservative voters to support Labour – he already has so many according to what the surveys suggest. But by summoning Thatcher he might hope to keep the ones he already has while encouraging those still clinging to the party or presently undecided to remain at home come election day – especially if they only read the headlines.

Despite his caveats about what Thatcher actually did in power, some Labour members are afraid Starmer’s praise for Thatcher represents a deeper shift. This follows the Labour leader already having moderated some of his more radical policies.

Yet, quite what Starmer’s precise intentions are for when he becomes prime minister remain uncertain. By invoking Thatcher, Starmer has, however, made at least one thing clear: his willingness to say and do almost anything to secure victory at the next general election. Perhaps that should reassure them.