MARGARET Thatcher was a “a visionary leader for the UK, no doubt about it,” one of Labour’s highest ranking MPs has said.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, made the comments after shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves positioned herself as a modern-day version of the former Tory leader.
During the annual Mais Lecture in London on Tuesday, Reeves said that Britain stands “at an inflection point” like it did “at the end of the 1970s,” a period that paved the way for Thatcher’s premiership and her sweeping economic programme, including the privatisation of many public services.
Asked about her comments, Reeves said that “at the next election, the choice is between five more years of chaos and instability versus the stability, the investment, and reform that I’ve set out”.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour REFUSE to condemn fresh Margaret Thatcher praise by top MP
Speaking to Politico’s Power Play interview podcast, Lammy insisted Reeves’s comparison with Thatcher was “very apposite”.
“You can take issue with Mrs Thatcher’s prescription, but she had a big manifesto for change and set about a course that lasted for over two decades,” the top Labour MP said.
“Margaret Thatcher was a visionary leader for the UK, no doubt about it, that’s absolutely clear.”
Lammy has become the most recent in a line of senior Labour figures to sing the praises of the former Tory prime minister.
On Tuesday, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones claimed Thatcher (below) oversaw a “decade of national renewal for our country” and said Labour wanted to ape her programme of “economic growth and wealth creation”.
The comments from the range of top Labour figures have sparked outrage both within the left of the party and from the SNP.
Responding to Lammy’s comments, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn posted only a vomiting emoji on social media.
SNP MSP Michelle Thomson wrote: “Add this to the growing list of fawning Labour politicians over the wrecking ball of Margaret Thatcher.
“They are openly praising her, and adopting her policies.”
Richard Leonard, the former Scottish Labour group leader, accused the party’s UK leadership of the “rewriting of history”.
“In the 1980s, manufacturing was butchered, factory after factory closed, privatisation was let rip, unemployment rocketed, profits boomed, the wage share fell, the rich got richer, and inequality soared,” he said.
“No rewriting of history. Thatcher didn’t renew the economy, she broke it.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Labour needs to be focused on delivering good jobs, public services and dignity in retirement, not more rhetoric about abstract economic concepts, like GDP growth.
“If you stick to phoney fiscal rules, rule out taxing the wealthy and pander to the profiteers, you end up in a straitjacket of your own making.
“Ripping up building regulations and tinkering in the public sector are not going to deliver serious growth – that’s for the birds. Only sustained long-term public investment in our crumbling infrastructure can turn the tide on decline.
“It’s time Labour came up with a plan for the real economy rather than the big business lobby.”
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