There is nothing wrong with the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, noting the transformative nature of Margaret Thatcher’s administrations. It is, after all, a fact. Thatcherism bulldozed the postwar consensus of nationalisation, strong trade unions, public housing and progressive taxation in favour of privatisation, a cowed labour movement, flogged-off council homes and tax cuts that predominantly benefited the well-to-do. Britain was reshaped in her image: although she has been dead for a decade, to be a British resident is still to live in Thatcher’s world.

If Starmer wished to similarly transform Britain, but in ways that accord with Labour’s founding principles, this would be cause for celebration. Instead he praised Thatcher for how she “sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism”. So while Gordon Brown described her as a “conviction politician” – objectively true – Starmer explicitly endorsed her in content rather than in form.

The first problem with this is that Starmer is buying into a myth. Economic growth has, since the neoliberal turn, been weak by postwar standards, and that mediocre economic growth has been less equitably distributed. Contrary to claims Thatcherism cured the sick man of Europe, Britain became dependent on property values and financialised assets, sucking wealth into non-productive parts of the economy. More importantly, Starmer’s praise of Thatcher gives us a glimpse into the essentially conservative nature of his project: it is increasingly clear that under a future Labour government, it won’t just be........

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