The Conservative Leadership race is heating up – with candidates from all sides of the broad church tussling over the ideological direction of the Conservative party. Despite this, some have decided to compete on their Margaret Thatcher tribute act. Prior to the demise of Boris Johnson and the subsequent leadership race, I believed Thatcher to be dead.
However Friday’s debate on Channel 4 has shown that, in the form of a political deity, she is well and truly alive: she is a political Elvis, there’s hundreds of tributes – none are very good.
While Truss and Mordaunt battle over their impressionism, Sunak, Tugendhat and Badenoch make phenomenal performances. Showing integrity and strength as leaders who could carry the United Kingdom into the future.
Truss had her costume down to the final detail; the tank riding photoshoot, the bowed shirt and the bold black blazer. Despite her best efforts, there are a few key factors separating her from Thatcher: conviction, determination and a core political philosophy. Penny Mordaunt has been no better, reminding party members she ‘has no willy’ to weaponise the words of Margaret Thatcher against the trans community.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Rishi Sunak also utilised the thatcherfactor by claiming, ‘[He’ll] run the economy like Thatcher’ with sensible taxcuts if elected. While the statement is a vague claim hoping to capitalise on hysteria amongst Conservative members, at least Sunak has an idea of how he can resolve the inflationary spiral that we currently face.
It is undeniable that Thatcher was uncompromising in her devotion to neo-liberalism. Truss – doing the opposite – stood in compliance as a Johnson loyalist, in a government ruling by popular policy. It’s a style of governance that has left the UK as a divided society with an inflation rate of 9.1 per cent.
Penny Mordaunt made an equally poor performance and while she certainly portrays a Prime Ministerial illusion, the majority of her debate came to giving political spiel with no clear viewpoint. This was highlighted over the question of Boris Johnson’s integrity, after a lengthy and indecisive answer from Mordaunt, Tugendhat won applause from the audience with a simple ‘no.’
The question must be asked: why do the candidates want to be Thatcher?
Although she is worshipped within the Party, amongst the general public Margaret Thatcher’s favourability is far more contested. A 2019 YouGov poll found that 20 per cent of British adults believed she was a ‘terrible’ Prime Minister, with an increase of 5 per cent when viewing the north of England.
The British people are demanding a leader who can tell them hard truths: Kemi Badenoch has made it clear through her statements in the Channel 4 debate that she is willing to give us this. She acknowledged that Sunak’s furlough had been a driver behind our current rate of inflation and she
certainly come across as the most genuine in leadership debates.
We need to bridge the gap between the people of this country and Westminster’s politicos. Kemi Badenoch is the candidate with the potential to fix this. She tells the truth, although sometimes the truth can be hard to swallow. It’ll be vital in building back trust in our institutions and our politicians.
