Labour's Pat McFadden defends Starmer's praise of Thatcher
Labour election chief Pat McFadden has defended Sir Keir Starmer after he faced a backlash for praising Margaret Thatcher. In a Sunday Telegraph opinion piece, the Labour leader claimed the former Conservative prime minister had effected “meaningful change” and “set loose Britain’s natural entrepreneurialism”. But McFadden says the comments were "not an endorsement of Thatcher's policies" but rather expressing admiration of her standing as a "conviction politician."
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00:00 There's a pretty long history to this. Gordon Brown had tea with Margaret Thatcher when he was the Prime Minister.
00:09 He said she was a politician who'd got things done. Tony Blair described her as a "towering figure".
00:16 It's not an endorsement of Mrs Thatcher's policies. The point Keir Starmer was making was that there are conviction politicians,
00:25 like Clement Attlee, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, who have big missions for the country.
00:31 He wants to be a conviction politician who has big missions for the country, not in the same direction as her, but with the same determination.