Sir Keir Starmer is facing outrage from his own MPs after he praised Margaret Thatcher for imposing “meaningful change” on the UK.
Labour MPs were left incensed by the comments which have been seen by many as a bid by the opposition leader to win over traditional Conservative voters.
Labour’s Rosie Duffield told GB News that she had received “a few emails” about her leaders comments.
“I’ve got old mining villages in my part of Kent,” she said.
“It’s not going down too well so far.”
Meanwhile, the grassroots campaign group Momentum – which was set up to help Jeremy Corbyn become Labour leader – said Starmer’s comments bring “shame on our party”.
In a statement, the group said: “Margaret Thatcher represented the opposite of everything the Labour movement stands for.
“Starmer’s praise of her isn’t smart politics. It’s a shift to the Right, and a failure of Labour values.”
“Does he really think that Thatcher followers will be fooled into voting for him?” an unnamed Labour MP added when talking to The Telegraph.
“In the meantime he is jeopardising long-time Labour voters.
“It is a damaging piece of Mandelsonian fantasy.”
Starmer had written an opinion piece for a Sunday newspaper in which he suggested he wanted to emulate Baroness Thatcher along with Clement Attlee and Sir Tony Blair.
He wrote: “Thatcher did have a plan for entrepreneurialism.
“That doesn’t mean I agree with what she did, but I don’t think anybody could suggest that she didn’t have a driving sense of purpose.”
Starmer defended his remarks yesterday afternoon, stating: “My focus is not on the Labour Party members and the Labour Party movement.
“We’ve spent a decade before I became leader obsessing about our membership and having a discussion with ourselves.”
