Keir Starmer not fit to lace Thatcher's boots, says Downing Street

Downing Street has insisted Rishi Sunak is not worried about Sir Keir Starmer's new found admiration of Margaret Thatcher, saying the Labour leader is not "fit to lace Baroness Thatcher's boots".

The prime minister - like many Conservative leaders before him - yearns to be seen as the true heir to the Iron Lady, as he made clear in his conference speech this year.

It now seems Sir Keir also sees himself in that mould, after praising her as a leader who sought to "drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism".

He named the three-times Conservative prime minister alongside Labour's Tony Blair and Clement Attlee as leaders who had delivered "meaningful change" in an article for the Tory-supporting Telegraph.

He later explained to BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House he had wanted to stress Baroness Thatcher's "sense of purpose" - but it did not mean he agreed with her.

• Starmer defends Thatcher praise in pitch to Tories

His comments have been met with horror by many on the left of the Labour Party, for whom Mrs Thatcher remains a hate figure.

But Tory MPs have reacted with glee.

At Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir grinned awkwardly as Michael Fabricant hailed him as a newly-converted Thatcher "fan boy".

Mr Sunak said: "I am always happy to welcome new Thatcherites from all sides of this House.

"But it does say something about the Leader of the Opposition that the main female strong leader he could praise is Margaret Thatcher and not his own fantastic deputy [Angela Rayner]."

Ms Rayner looked less than impressed by the exchanges, as she sat at Sir Keir's side, listening to the howls of laughter from the Tory benches.

But it was the SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn who got one of the biggest laugh of the session when he asked Mr Sunak: "Is the prime minister worried that he is projected to be the first Conservative Party leader to lose a general election to a fellow Thatcherite?"

Two of Sir Keir's role models meet at an event in 2007

Asked afterwards if Mr Sunak was worried about Sir Keir's adoption of Thatcher, his spokeswoman took a swipe at the Labour leader's previous support for Jeremy Corbyn, adding: "I don't think we have too many concerns. He is not really fit to lace the boots of Baroness Thatcher."

Sir Keir's spokesman said he "didn't want to get into it" when asked about Downing Street's boots jibe.

But he insisted that "whether you agree or disagree with her she [Thatcher] came into power with a clear sense of leadership", something he said was in stark contrast to the past 13 years of Tory drift.

Labour would want to approach government with the same "sense of mission and purpose" as Baroness Thatcher, he added.

But why chase Thatcher supporters when Labour is so far ahead in the opinion polls?

"We are certainly not taking the next election for granted. For the Labour Party to win the next election we need a bigger swing than Tony Blair achieved in 1997. There is no complacency in the Labour Party on the scale of the challenge," he said.

"We want people who voted Conservative at the last election to vote Labour at the next election otherwise we won't win."