Sir Keir Starmer has stoked anger among the Labour left after he praised former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher for bringing about “meaningful change” in Britain.
In a comment piece for The Sunday Telegraph, Sir Keir hailed Mrs Thatcher’s attempts to “drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism”.
It signalled the Opposition leader’s most overt pitch to centre-right Conservative voters to date, as both parties gear up for the next general election, expected in autumn 2024.
But the move has sparked anger among the Labour left, with the Momentum group accusing Sir Keir of bringing “shame on our party” and abandoning traditional Labour values for votes.
In his article on Sunday, Sir Keir urged lapsed Tory voters to “look again at Labour,” insisting that the party has “changed dramatically” since Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
“Across Britain there are people who feel disillusioned, frustrated, angry, worried. Many of them have always voted Conservative but feel that their party has left them. I understand that,” he said.
“I saw that with my own party and acted to fix it. But I also understand that many will still be uncertain about Labour. I ask them to take a look at us again.”
The Labour leader also took aim at the “hectoring and interfering” of modern politics, adding that “every moment of meaningful” change over the past century has come from “the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people rather than dictating to them”.
He said: “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 Tony Blair reimagined a stale, outdated Labour Party into one that could seize the optimism of the late 90s.
“A century ago, Clement Attlee wrote that Labour must be a party of duty and patriotism, not abstract theory. To build a ‘New Jerusalem’ meant first casting off the mind-forged manacles. That lesson is as true today as it was then.”
Momentum accused Sir Keir of overseeing a “shift to the right”, marking the latest sign of fractures within the Labour party following widespread upset over its stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
A spokesperson for Momentum said: “Margaret Thatcher represented the opposite of everything the Labour movement stands for. Individualism instead of solidarity. Private interest instead of public. The rich over the working class.
“By praising her, Starmer brings shame on our party… It’s a shift to the right and a failure of Labour values.”
Labour MP Ian Byrne also criticised Sir Keir, claiming communities across the UK are still struggling because of the “economic system built by Thatcher”. “Inequality, hunger, destitution and misery. That’s the real legacy left by Thatcher,” he said.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: “Margaret Thatcher did nothing for working class communities in Liverpool and across the country: destroyed industries, attacked trade unionists, privatised our core industries.”
She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Not someone any Labour supporter should look up to. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Sir Keir later defended his praise of Mrs Thatcher, saying 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”.
Speaking to the BBC, said the Opposition leader the defining characteristic of an incoming Labour government would be the same “sense of mission, the sense of having a plan that we’re operating to, a driving sense of purpose”.
Richard Holden, the chair of the Conservative party, accused Sir Keir of saying “anything to get elected”.
“This is yet another classic example of him saying what he thinks people want to hear, despite having a track record of doing exactly the opposite,” he said. “Keir Starmer has broken every single one of his leadership pledges, he will always choose the short-term position because he does not have the principles needed to lead Britain.”
However, the Labour leader’s intervention will likely fuel concerns among some Tory MPs that the party could lose the support of people who voted Conservative at the 2019 election, as frustrations grow over the Government’s approach to key areas such as immigration, inflation and crime.
Latest polling suggests Labour has a 21-point lead over the Tories, with recent policy announcements by Rishi Sunak doing little to narrow the gap. A poll for Ipsos in November showed that 46 per cent of people intend to back Labour at the general election, compared to 25 per cent who plan to vote for the Conservatives.
Mr Sunak is currently drawing up plans to ensure deportation flights take off for Rwanda, as he scrambles to act on immigration ahead of the general election.
As soon as next week, ministers are set to table legislation that will define Rwanda in law as a “safe country” for deportations. They are also finalising a treaty with Rwanda’s government which will contain pledges to safeguard the rights of deportees.
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