17-03-2025
Stop Thatcher obsession, Tory whip tells party
The Conservative Party should end its 'obsession' with Margaret Thatcher, a Tory assistant whip has said.
Katie Lam, the MP for Weald of Kent, said the former prime minister 'correctly diagnosed' a number of problems, but she did not believe that Thatcherism 'helps or serves us now'.
On Monday, she told the Margaret Thatcher Conference, held by the Centre for Policy think tank: 'I think Margaret Thatcher correctly diagnosed a number of things about the world, about human nature, about this country, and those facts remain true.
'A lot of her basic insights to do with the market, to do with how people make choices, to do with how people run their households were all right. So there's no need to throw them away.
'I don't think, though, that it helps or serves the Conservative Party in 2025 to be obsessed with Thatcher and Thatcherism.'
Ms Lam, who entered Parliament last year, served as an adviser to Suella Braverman and deputy chief of staff to Boris Johnson in Downing Street.
She told the conference in central London: 'Margaret Thatcher went out before I was born, so thinking too much about events and the way that the world was decades ago – well, half a century ago when she came to leadership of the Conservative Party – I'm not sure necessarily helps or serves us now.'
It comes after Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, was revealed to have said that Thatcher made an 'error' in not doing more to help mining communities find new work after the pits closed.
In a private meeting in September, she said: 'There's some things which we have learnt from Mrs Thatcher, which we shouldn't repeat, in terms of errors which occurred.
'And one of them, I think, was around what happened with communities where the industry was closed. You think about mining. I think having a very clear plan for how to regenerate communities when there is going to be a loss of a particular industry that many people rely on.'
The Conservatives are in the process of rebuilding after a historic wipeout at the general election, which left them with 121 seats. The party is also contending with surging support for Reform UK.
Sir Keir Starmer praised Thatcher while he was in opposition, writing in The Telegraph in December 2023 that she effected 'meaningful change' in Britain.
Following a backlash, she was later forced to clarify that he had wanted to draw attention to her 'driving sense of purpose', but that his remarks did not mean he agreed with her, following a backlash.
