From ‘standing with’ the miners and Margaret Thatcher being ‘wrong’ on society… to hailing the ex-PM’s drive to make Britain ‘entrepreneurial’: How Keir Starmer’s stance on the Iron Lady has flip-flopped over the years

Sir Keir Starmer today defended his praise of Margaret Thatcher after the Labour leader faced a left-wing backlash for hailing the former prime minister.

In an article for a Sunday newspaper, Sir Keir applauded Thatcher’s drive to ‘drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism’.

But his bid to woo disgruntled Tory voters by praising the ex-PM caused fury within Labour and among trade union leaders, with his comments branded ’embarrassing’.

Sir Keir, dubbed ‘Sir Flip Flop’ by critics, was also accused of ‘saying anything to get elected’ as it was noted how his remarks jarred with his past criticism of Thatcher.

The Labour leader has previously accused the former premier of ‘almost destroying British manufacturing’ and ‘devastating’ communities by closing coal mines.

He has also claimed Britain is ‘still counting the cost’ from Thatcher’s financial ‘big bang’ in the 1980s.

Sir Keir Starmer defended his praise of Margaret Thatcher after the Labour leader faced a left-wing backlash for hailing the former prime minister

In an article for a Sunday newspaper, Sir Keir applauded Thatcher’s drive to ‘drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism’

Speaking today, as he was quizzed about his most recent remarks, Sir Keir told a Resolution Foundation event: ‘What I was doing at the weekend in the article I wrote for The Sunday Telegraph was distinguishing between particularly post-war leaders – those leaders, those prime ministers – who had a driving sense of purpose, ambition, a plan to deliver and those that drifted.

On Thatcher, he added: ‘Now it doesn’t mean I agree with what she did but you don’t have to agree with someone to recognise they had a mission and a plan.

‘So I was giving Margaret Thatcher as an example of the sort of leader who had that mission and plan. That’s obviously different to saying I agree with everything that she did.’

In a swipe at Sir Keir’s desperation to become PM at the next general election, Tory chairman Richard Holden has claimed the Labour leader will ‘say 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 the opposite,’ he added.

Tory backbencher Brendan Clarke-Smith said: ‘The public realise Starmer will say whatever he thinks people want to hear.

‘They will be flabbergasted at his praise for Margaret Thatcher – especially when he has previously portrayed himself as a champion of mineworkers.

‘It’s just the latest flip-flop and goes to show that both he and Labour can’t be treated seriously.’

Here are five times Sir Keir previously criticised Thatcher – before his latest ‘flip-flop’:

Thatcher ‘almost destroyed British manufacturing’

In December 2017, the then shadow Brexit secretary took aim at Tory former Cabinet minister Norman Tebbit.

It came after Lord Tebbit, an arch-Brexiteer, blasted Michael Heseltine over his ‘unprecedented’ comments suggesting a Jeremy Corbyn government might be preferable to leaving the EU.

Amid calls for Lord Heseltine to be stripped of the Tory whip, Lord Tebbit wondered whether his loyalty laid with ‘the UK or a foreign power’.

In response to the comments, Sir Keir wrote on Twitter: ‘Advice from Tebbit, who with Thatcher almost destroyed Britains’s manufacturing base. I don’t think so.’

Thatcher’s ‘devastating’ closure of coal mines

In August 2021, Sir Keir hit out at then PM Boris Johnson after he joked Britain had been given a ‘big early start’ on achieving Net Zero ‘thanks to Margaret Thatcher who closed so many coal mines’.

Sir Keir posted on Twitter: ‘Boris Johnson’s shameful praising of Margaret Thatcher ‘s closure of the coal mines, brushing off the devastating impact on those communities with a laugh, shows just how out of touch he is with working people.’

In a social media video, the Labour leader also added: ‘I stood by the miners under the Tories and I stand by their communities now.

‘These communities contributed so much to the success of our country and then they were abandoned. The Tories didn’t care then. And they don’t care now.

‘To treat the pain and suffering caused to our coalmine communities as a punchline shows just how out of touch Boris Johnson is. The prime minister must apologise immediately.’

Thatcher ‘wrong’ to say there’s ‘no such thing as society’

In June last year, Sir Keir used a newspaper interview to slam Thatcher’s famous claim that ‘there is no such thing as society’.

The Labour leader told the Telegraph: ‘If ever there was evidence that Margaret Thatcher was wrong about there being no such thing as society, we just saw it in the pandemic.’

It has been argued that Thatcher – in what became one of her most contentious phrases – was expressing a view that individuals should first try to solve their own problems, rather than relying on government.

Thatcher ‘didn’t see the point in our country making things’

In July this year, Sir Keir used a speech in Kent to take a fresh swipe at the attitude of Tory governments to Britain’s manufacturers in the 1980s.

He said: ‘Take my dad. He was a tool-maker – and a good one – highly skilled, proud of his work.

‘But back in the 1980s, the Tories made it quite clear people like him were not valued and that actually, they didn’t see the point of our country making things, that his skills were not part of their future. This hurt him.’

Britain’s ‘still counting the cost’ from Thatcher’s ‘big bang’

In October this year, Sir Keir blasted Thatcher’s deregulation of financial markets during his keynote speech to Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.

He said: ‘Back in the 1980s the Tories gave us a financial ‘big bang’ and we’re still counting the cost. Wealth and opportunity – concentrated in the hands of the few.

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