In the nine days since Margaret Thatcher’s death, Labour MPs have become increasingly troubled by the right’s attempt to present Thatcher as a figure above and beyond party politics, so David Cameron’s declaration on the Today programme that “we’re all Thatcherites now” has unsurprisingly provoked a hostile response.
Stewart Wood, Ed Miliband’s chief strategist, who sits in the shadow cabinet as minister without portfolio, tweeted simply: “no we’re not”. Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson may have made much of their embrace of the Iron Lady’s nostrums (indeed, Mandelson himself declared in 2002, “we’re all Thatcherites now”) but Labour’s “new generation“, which aspires to move the centre to the left as Thatcher moved it to the right, has less interest in consensus.
With the local elections just two weeks away and Labour’s poll lead at its lowest level for months, there is also concern at the largely free rein Cameron has been given to hail the values of a Conservative prime minister. Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant tweeted after the interview: “Really surprised that a party leader was allowed on BBC without a single taxing question during local election campaign.”
But others, including some in Labour, will accept Cameron’s argument that the rest of the world would think it “extraordinary” if the nation did not formally mark the passing of its first (and only) woman prime minister and the first PM to win three elections under universal suffrage. Equally, however, Cameron would be wise to avoid any further hint of Tory triumphalism today.
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