Recently, Labour leader Keir Starmer has made some comments about the former Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, which has caused disagreements in his party. Many saw him as defending her and her even most controversial policies.
Why has this caused outrage from Labour supporters? Well, traditionally Labour has been the more left-wing, socialist party with Conservative’s dominating the right. It is important to keep in mind not only the fact that these are opposing parties, but they also have conflicting views on different issues based off their ideological position.
Recently, Keir Starmer made comments praising Thatcher for ‘having had a plan’ and stating when setting policy ‘she had a mission’. What exactly about these comments are controversial? Well, Thatcher was responsible for overseeing the privatisation of many companies in the late 1970’s. This means that she had sold many government-owned services to private companies such as the bus/rail network and the gas board. This led to price rises to allow profit to be made (which the opposition would argue that it could be distributed more fairly under the government).
He defended himself after, in a desperate plea to clear up confusion on what he meant when making the comments, saying that he was not ‘endorsing Thatcher’s policies’ but rather giving her recognition for her ‘conviction as a politician’.
So why did Starmer do this? In the wake of party gate, three prime ministers in as many years and an overall party that is falling apart at the seams in government, Starmer is attempting to provide a deliberate pitch to Conservative voters. Many have seen this as a smart political move from the Labour party. The polls are suggestive of a Labour win, but Keir Starmer needs to ensure that his party receives enough seats to comfortably make the 326 majority, especially as rumours of a Lib-Lab (Labour and Liberal Democrat) coalition are beginning to rise…
*Coalition- where one party does not receive enough seats in parliament so has to go into government with another party. David Cameron 2010 conservative government was in coalition with the liberal democrats meaning they had to work together in parliament.
Photo source: Evening Standard