Labour leader says former PM ‘set loose our natural entrepreneurialism’ in appeal to Tory voters to back him

Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting “meaningful change” in Britain in an article directly appealing to Conservative voters to switch to Labour.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the Labour leader said Thatcher had “set loose our natural entrepreneurialism” during her time as prime minister.

“Across Britain, there are people who feel disillusioned, frustrated, angry, worried. Many of them have always voted Conservative but feel that their party has left them,” he said. “I understand that. I saw that with my own party and acted to fix it. But I also understand that many will still be uncertain about Labour. I ask them to take a look at us again.”

In the article, Starmer pointed to Labour prime ministers of the past – Tony Blair and Clement Attleee – as well as Thatcher, as examples of how politicians can effect meaningful change.

  • buzziebee@lemmy.world
    10·
    11 months ago

    Yeah the article content really doesn’t seem as bad as the momentum folks are making it out to be, and you raise the salient point that this messaging is speaking to the groups of voters who labour need to bring over to win.

    I personally would like to see a few more lefty policies over the next year, but grandstanding and promising the world means nothing if they lose the next election. I get why Starmer has been playing it safe this way, and I get why people are sometimes disappointed with it, but they are in it to win it and that’s a very good thing.

    The country is in a real mess and we simply need successive Labour governments to start the long road to recovery. We often talk about how damaging the polarization of politics has become, so reaching across the divide to try and bring voters over shouldn’t be demonised.