Starmer praise for Thatcher an insult to Scots, says ex-Labour MSP

Sir Keir Starmer said Margaret Thatcher unleashed Britain's "natural entrepreneurialism"

Sir Keir Starmer's praise for Margaret Thatcher has been described as an "insult" to working-class Scots by a former Labour MSP.

Neil Findlay said people would be "appalled" by the comments.

In a Sunday Telegraph column, Sir Keir said Baroness Thatcher helped free the UK for a "stupor" and set loose the UK's "natural entrepreneurialism".

The Labour leader later said he wanted to stress her "sense of purpose" - but it did not mean he agreed with her.

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Baroness Thatcher, who was UK Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990, was a deeply unpopular figure among many working-class communities in Scotland.

Neil Findlay, a left-wing Labour MSP from 2011 and 2021, said the comments were an "insult" to people who suffered from unemployment, mass closures, deindustrialisation and privatisation during Baroness Thatcher's reign.

"And all those who saw poverty, destitution and addiction soar because of the policies of the Thatcher government," he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland.

"If you couple that with the whole ethos of it, the whole politics of greed, of selfishness and of individualism then I think people will be absolutely appalled by the comments."

Mr Findlay added: "This is not about just Scotland, this is about an insult to working class people across the entire country."

Margaret Thatcher was UK prime minister between 1979 and 1990

He warned that Labour had "not learned its lesson" in Scotland, where voters have previously switched to support the SNP when they felt "let down" by the party.

"Of course all parties will try to woo people from across the political spectrum that's the game," Mr Findlay said. "However you don't do that by insulting the core voters who have stuck with you all through."

Meanwhile, Labour's Monica Lennon said the former prime minister's legacy "haunts" the country.

The Central Scotland MSP posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Thatcher's legacy still haunts us, with many problems facing the UK today rooted in political and economic decisions made in the 1980s.

"Whole communities destroyed, turbo-charged inequality and mass unemployment. Lessons still need to be learned."

'Utterly unnecessary'

John McTernan, a strategist and former Labour advisor, said Sir Keir's column was designed to reassure former Tory voters who were intending to vote Labour at the next general election but described the comment as "utterly unnecessary".

"The Tories who have decided to vote Labour have decided to vote Labour," he told Good Morning Scotland.

"I think it was an unnecessary article by Keir and an unnecessary nod to Thatcher. I don't think a Labour leader wanting to be prime minister needs to bend the knee to anybody in the Tory party."

Mr McTernan said Sir Keir was "taunting" the Tories by comparing Baroness Thatcher with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and a succession of Tory prime ministers in recent years.

"There are so many things to attack and to mock about his current government. There really was no need to go in and write that line about Margaret Thatcher."

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Sir Keir's column was also criticised by First Minister Humza Yousaf.

"What Thatcher did to mining and industrial communities was not 'entrepreneurialism', it was vandalism," he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

"Starmer praising Thatcher is an insult to those communities in Scotland, and across the UK, who still bear the scars of her disastrous policies."

Sir Keir told Broadcasting House that the point of his article was to compare what he described as the "drift" of recent years with the "sense of mission" of previous leaders.

"It doesn't mean I agree with what she [Thatcher] did, but I don't think anybody could suggest she didn't have a driving sense of purpose." he said.

UK Health Secretary Victoria Atkins accused the Labour leader of trying to "ride on the coattails" of Baroness Thatcher.

The mere mention of Margaret Thatcher's name provokes intense reactions.

For some, the UK's first female prime minister is a symbol of everything wrong with politics - a focus on material gain at the expense of compassion.

For others, she was the political dynamite that kicked a stagnant economy into action. The right leader at the right time.

It's not hard to see what Sir Keir Starmer is trying to do. He needs to win over traditional Conservative voters, so why not praise one of their most significant leaders?

But some feel he's doing so at the risk of alienating his own natural supporters.

It should be noted his Sunday Telegraph piece only made a passing reference to the Iron Lady. His article was much broader.

But within Scottish Labour his comments haven't landed well.

The same pro-Thatcher fanclub doesn't seem to exist in Scotland on the same scale as parts of England.

A Labour leader heaping any sort of praise on a prime minister who introduced the poll tax and took on the miners is a hard sell for party figures north of the border.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Sir Keir Starmer have had a few public (yet cordial) disagreements of late on issues like a Gaza ceasefire and the two-child benefits cap.

I suspect this may well turn into another one.