Keir Starmer defends praise for Margaret Thatcher: ‘She had a mission’

Sir Keir Starmer has defended his praise for Margaret Thatcher in a Daily Telegraph article over the weekend.

Taking questions from reporters on Monday 4 December, the Labour leader said he was simply trying to distinguish between post-war prime ministers “who had a driving sense of purpose, ambition, a plan to deliver and those that drifted”.

“It doesn’t mean I agree with what she did,” Sir Keir said of Thatcher.

“But you don’t have to agree with someone to recognise they had a mission and a plan... I want a mission-driven Labour government.”

Sir Keir added that the last 13 years of government has seen a “complete lack of leadership and a real drift”.