- Voters have reacted with dismay over Rachel Reeves’ Thatcher parallel
- The shadow chancellor has called for a “decade of national renewal”
- But several people have pointed out that the former Tory MP renewed very little during her time at the helm
Reaction has flooded in as Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, prepares to pitch herself as a modern-day Margaret Thatcher.
Likening the challenges facing the UK to those facing the Iron Lady in the late 1970s, Reeves will use a major speech on Tuesday (19/3) to repeat Labour’s pledge to embark on a “decade of national renewal”.
Cosplaying the former Tory leader, she will promise radical reforms to end the country’s “managed decline” and restore “strong economic growth across Britain”.
“When we speak of a decade of national renewal, that is what we mean”, Reeves will say.
“As we did at the end of the 1970s, we stand at an inflection point, and as in earlier decades, the solution lies in wide-ranging supply-side reform to drive investment, remove the blockages constraining our productive capacity, and fashion a new economic settlement, drawing on evolutions in economic thought.”
It’s not the first time the current Labour Party has flirted with Thatcher parallels.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer recently claimed Lady Thatcher effected “meaningful change” and “set loose Britain’s natural entrepreneurialism”.
But the parallels haven’t gone down well with everyone.
Campaign group Momentum have responded, saying the Labour leadership was “once again proving itself out of touch”.
“Thatcher’s Government did not bring about ‘national renewal’ but instead misery for millions of working-class people and ballooning inequality,” Momentum added.
The reaction on social media has also been pretty fierce.
Here’s a round-up of what people have had to say:
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