On 11 February 1975 Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party. The former education secretary won 47.1% of the vote compared to Ted Heath’s 43.1% in the first ballot…
Mrs T. won every subsequent general election she fought until she was ousted in 1990. To celebrate the Tories have sent an email to all of their members flogging a Thatcher-themed mug for £25. They include in their plea some Kemi messaging:
“Fifty years ago, on January 20th 1975, Margaret Thatcher announced her candidacy for Leader of the Conservative Party.
She promised to deal with the mistakes of the previous Government.
She didn’t rush to policy announcements, but worked diligently to build a detailed vision for the future of our country.
As Kemi is doing for us today.
So please help power the renewal and put our Party in the best shape to change Britain for the better at the next elections, just as Margaret Thatcher did all those years ago.”
At Mrs Thatcher’s first conference speech in October of that year she began to identify what she identified as pillars of recovery: restoring profits, reversing Labour education reforms, and dismantling Barbara Castle’s NHS pay beds phase out. If it walks like a policy and quacks like a policy…
The next year Conservative Central Office distributed the landmark policy statement called “The Right Approach” which set out in some significant detail what Thatcher was proposing to do if she was in power. YouGov’s latest polling this morning has the Tories trailing in third place on 21 points behind an ascendant Reform, which sits in first place at 26. Tempora mutantur…
Badenoch said at her speech on Monday morning: “We are absolutely ready to fight a general election. We say the results in Aberdeen South: 50% of the vote. Because we can unite the country… It’s about uniting the country, for God’s sake, behind a centre-right agenda.”