Sir Keir Starmer is facing a growing backlash after piling praise on Margaret Thatcher in a bid to win over disillusioned Tory voters.
The Labour leader has been attacked by critics on the right who accused him of trying to “ride on the coattails of Thatcher’s success”. But he has also angered MPs on the left, with one saying the former PM “caused poverty and deprivation not seen since the Dickensian era”.
Sir Keir heaped praise on Thatcher, claiming the former prime minister effected “meaningful change” and “set loose Britain’s natural entrepreneurialism”.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Sir Keir said: “Every moment of meaningful change in modern British politics begins with the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people, rather than dictating to them.
“Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism. Tony Blair reimagined a stale, outdated Labour Party into one that could seize the optimism of the late Nineties.”
He followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Sir Tony, who also praised the so-called Iron Lady in the run-up to his 1997 general election landslide.
But left-wing Labour MP Beth Winter said the Thatcher government, which ran from 1979 to 1990, “devastated communities with the deliberate destruction of the mining industry”.
She added: “Policies like the grossly iniquitous poll tax and the great privatisation rip-off offs were the hallmarks of Thatcherism.
“Most of those forced to rely on food banks today are from communities that have never recovered from the Thatcher government’s assault on working-class communities.
“Her government’s attacks on the working class and trade unions is well remembered in my [Cynon Valley] constituency.”
Asked what the strategy behind Sir Keir’s praise for Mrs Thatcher was, one Labour MP told The Independent there were “no runes to read”.
“You would be better off reading the entrails of a chicken than trying to understand the strategy in Keir’s office, it’s just madness,” the MP said.
The MP said Sir Keir would not win over Thatcherite voters and “all it does is cause division in our own party”.
Another Labour MP Ian Byrne said Thatcher’s legacy was “inequality, hunger, destitution and misery”. And Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said Mrs Thatcher “did nothing for working class communities in Liverpool and across the country”. Ms Johnson added that she is “not someone Labour supporters should look up to”.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” she warned.
North of Tyne metro mayor Jamie Driscoll, who was blocked from standing for re-election as a Labour candidate, said Sir Keir had now “abandoned the red wall”.
The left-wing mayor said: “The northeast lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs under Margaret Thatcher, my Dad’s job included. This is adding insult to injury.”
Pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group Momentum said Sir Keir’s praise of Thatcher was “a failure of Labour values”. A spokesperson said: “Margaret Thatcher laid waste to working-class communities, privatised our public services, and set in train the destruction of the post-war settlement founded by Labour.
“Starmer’s praise of her isn’t smart politics. It’s a shift to the right, and a failure of Labour values.”
Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf attacked Sir Keir for the comments – arguing that “what Thatcher did to mining and industrial communities was not ‘entrepreneurialism’, it was vandalism”.
In a post on X, he said: “Starmer praising Thatcher is an insult to those communities in Scotland, and across the UK, who still bear the scars of her disastrous policies.”
Sir Keir hit back at critics, saying the point of his article was to “distinguish political leaders ... between those that had a plan and those that drifted essentially”.
In an interview with the BBC, he said: “And that’s why I referenced: Attlee, who obviously had a strong plan, New Jerusalem; Tony Blair, who captured the optimism of the 1990s having changed the Labour Party; and Thatcher, who did have a plan for entrepreneurialism, had a mission, it doesn’t mean I agree with what she did but I don’t think anybody could suggest that she didn’t have a driving sense of purpose.”
Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds was asked on Sky News whether he was a “Thatcher fan”. “No, I’m not but I can recognise that she was a formidable opponent,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tory health secretary Victoria Atkins accused Sir Keir of trying to “ride on the coattails of her success”. Ms Atkins said Thatcher would not appreciate Sir Keir’s praise, touting a famous quote from the former PM saying: “No. No. No.”
She told Sky News: “I think the public will see this for what it is… don’t forget he wasn’t appealing to Margaret Thatcher’s entrepreneurial spirit when he was courting votes from the hard left, and I suspect the great lady herself would view a man who is trying to ride on the coattails of her success with the following words: No. No. No.”
Tory party chair Richard Holden piled in, accusing Sir Keir of “saying what he thinks people want to hear, despite having a track record of doing exactly the opposite”.
Sir Keir’s article in the Tory-supporting paper also said Labour has undergone “shock therapy” since he took over the party from Mr Corbyn in 2020, adding that it has “changed dramatically”.
And, in a sign of his growing confidence as Labour leader, Sir Keir sought to outflank Rishi Sunak by appealing to Tory voters on Brexit and migration.
In a shift from his staunch opposition to Britain leaving the EU, he said the Tories have “failed to realise the possibilities of Brexit”.
He added that he “profoundly disagrees” with the idea Labour should duck topics such as small boat crossings and immigration.
He added: “This is a government that was elected on a promise that immigration would ‘come down’ and the British people would ‘always [be] in control’. For immigration to then triple is more than just yet another failure – it is a betrayal of their promises.”
