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10 April 2013updated 05 Oct 2023 8:19am

Labour MPs divide over whether to boycott the Thatcher tribute or hijack it

Former minister John Healey says "this will not be the occasion or opportunity" to criticise Thatcher's record but David Winnick says it would be "absolutely hypocritical" not to.

By George Eaton

Ahead of today’s special Parliamentary tribute to Margaret Thatcher, Ed Miliband has been encouraging Labour MPs to return from their constituencies in order to ensure the party is well represented at the occasion. There is, however, no formal requirement for backbenchers to attend and several have publicly announced that they intend to stay away.

In an article for PoliticsHome, former minister John Healey writes that David Cameron is “wrong to recall Parliament” and that Thatcher’s death “could and should have been marked when the Commons returns next week.” Healey, like other Labour MPs, is angered at the attempt by Thatcher’s supporters to present her as a figure above and beyond party politics. He notes that Parliament has only been recalled 25 times since the Second World War and only once to pay tribute “to a truly national figure, the Queen Mother”. Thatcher’s legacy, he writes, is “too bitter” to merit such treatement. “I will play no part and I will stay away, with other things to do at home in the constituency.”

Other Labour MPs who intend to remain on holiday or in their constituencies, include Ronnie Campbell, a former miner and MP for Blyth Valley, and John Mann, who has said he doesn’t understand why “taxpayers’ money” should be wasted on an additional session when it could be “properly done on Monday”. Campbell said: “I have got better things to do in the office here, looking after the interests of the people of Blyth Valley than listening to people singing her praises. Some MPs might think it is their duty to be there — I certainly do not. Her legacy here was the destruction of thousands of jobs.”

But while the Labour leadership wants as many as MPs as possible to attend (the site of empty opposition benches would be uncomfortable for Miliband) , it has made it clear that it would rather they stay away than use the occasion to attack Thatcher’s time in office. As Healey rightly notes in his piece, the event is officially described as a “special session in which tributes will be paid”; it is not a debate on her record.  He adds: 

This will not be the occasion or opportunity to debate the closure of the coal industry, the squandering of North Sea oil revenues to cover the cost of tax cuts, the ‘big bang’ deregulation of banking, the £17 billion privatisation of public housing or the deep social divisions as a legacy of her period as Prime Minister.

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For the same reason, George Galloway, who tweeted “may she burn in the hellfires” following the news of Thatcher’s death, will boycott the occasion. Asked if he would be attending, Galloway said: “I understand it is not a debate, so no. If it were a debate about the legacy of Margaret Thatcher I would be first in the queue for prayers. It is a state-organised eulogy.”

However, at least one Labour MP has announced that, if called by the Speaker, he will criticise Thatcher’s record. David Winnick told the Guardian: “It would be absolutely hypocritical if those of us who were opposed at the time to what occurred – the mass unemployment, the poverty – were to remain silent when the house is debating her life. This will be an opportunity to speak frankly.” Miliband, who is wary of Labour being seen to attack Thatcher just 48 hours after the news of her death, will hope that few choose to follow his lead. 

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