“Sir Keir Starmer has piled praise on Margaret Thatcher in a bid to win over disillusioned Tory voters,” reports the Independent. “The Labour leader paid tribute to the former prime minister, who he said effected ‘meaningful change’ and ‘set loose Britain’s natural entrepreneurialism’.”

Unsurprisingly, reaction has been swift and dismissive. “Margaret Thatcher laid waste to working-class communities, privatised our public services, and set in train the destruction of the post-war settlement founded by Labour,” said a Momentum spokesperson. “Starmer’s praise of her isn’t smart politics. It’s a shift to the right, and a failure of Labour values.”

The spokesperson went on: “Margaret Thatcher represented the opposite of everything the labour movement stands for. Individualism instead of solidarity. Private interest instead of public. The rich over the working-class.  By praising her, Starmer brings shame on our party.”

Ian Byrne MP tweeted: “Today like every game for the last 8 years we will be outside Anfield collecting food to help those struggling to put a meal on the table because of an economic system built by Thatcher. Inequality, hunger, destitution and misery. That’s the real legacy left by Thatcher.”

Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project agreed: “Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is one of economic assault on working class communities, destroying vital public services and cosying up to the murderous dictator Pinochet. No aspiring government should seek to imitate the devastation she left behind.”

Former Corbyn advisor Andrew Fisher was quick to debunk the ahistorical nonsense about Thatcher unleashing entrepreneurialism, tweeting: “Average GDP growth/year in the 1970s: 3.1% Average GDP growth/year in the 1980s: 2.7%”

Tribune agreed: “Decades after she left office, it’s clear that she left the economy weaker and more unequal.”

David Osland also agreed: “I don’t remember Thatcher setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism. I remember her decimating British manufacturing and putting three million people on the dole.”

Labour peer Prem Sikka drew up a longer charge sheet, pointing out that Thatcher had hiked interest rate to 17%, increased unemployment, longer NHS waiting lists, increased VAT from 8% to 15% and brought in tax cuts for the rich. Her government privatised energy and water and deregulated the City of London which paved the way for the 2007-8 financial crash. She also introduced anti-worker laws and destroyed social housing.

“And this on the very day that the Telegraph is reporting that Thames Water is on the verge of bankruptcy – another potential bill for the Thatcher Decade,” added former MP Chris Mullin.

Beth Winter MP said: “Margaret Thatcher devastated working class communities like mine in Cynon Valley and attacked the trade unions.”

Economist Richard Murphy underlined Thatcher’s true legacy: “3 million people using foodbanks; raw sewage pumped into our rivers;  a broken NHS; record energy prices; crumbling schools; uncapped banker bonuses; defunded public services; Covid money given to mates; high rent and food; insufficient housing.”

Former Scottish MSP Neil Findlay also had a list: “Mass unemployment – Soaring inequality – Privatisation – Local Govt shackled – Trade unions attacked – Wealth and power in the hands of the few –  The poll tax – Deindustrialisation – Council housing sold off – Minorities demonised.”

London Labour Councillor Maurice Mcleod said: “I saw her turn our country from one that cared about community into one based greed and individualism. She stole my future and sold it to her mates.”

Leeds-based academic and activist Simon Hewitt pointed out that Starmer’s praise for Thatcher may prove counterproductive: “In order to win the General Election Labour needs to win the ‘red wall’ seats of the former industrialised north. People there remember what Thatcher did to those areas.”

Diane Abbott MP wondered whether Labour was planning to run a general election campaign around Brexit and immigration and asked whether Keir Starmer really thinks “we can out bid the Tories on hostility to migrants?”

Welsh Labour Grassroots said, “As the Labour leader gleefully debases himself to praise Margaret Thatcher, a reminder of a proper tribute from the late Glenda Jackson,” retweeting the Labour MP’s searing condemnation of Thatcher in the House of Commons following her death. “Everything I had been taught to regard as a vice, under Thatcherism, was in fact a virtue,” Jackson said.

The pithiest response – also unprintable – came from legendary singer Billy Bragg: see here.

Image; Photographer: Rob Bogaerts for Anefo. Source: Nationaal Archief: entry ad2e0288-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.