Caroline Slocock was Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher and John Major and now runs the Civil Exchange think tank which aims to help government and civil society work better together. She is the author of ‘People Like Us‘.
The 45th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 election victory is approaching on 3 May, the day after the local and Mayoral elections. These look set to be brutal for the Tories.
Rishi Sunak has to an extent modelled himself on Margaret Thatcher, launching his pitch to become party leader at Grantham, her birthplace, and pointing out that they both helped out in their parent’s modest shops in the heart of their communities. He is also committed to the low-tax, small-state approach she espoused, at least in principle.
So what might Sunak learn from Thatcher that might help to turn his party’s fortunes around?
First, he should act meaningfully on his original aim to bring “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” in government. This matters because without trust in politicians, very little can be achieved. It is a vital ingredient for winning elections.
However much some people disapproved of Mrs Thatcher’s politics, they believed that she meant what she said and that she would deliver what she promised. I worked for her as her Private Secretary for Home Affairs in No 10, and I can testify that she would not have allowed Partygate to happen. And she got us to check her facts before writing or speaking because facts mattered to her. She didn’t need a statistics watchdog to tell her this.
Boris Johnson eroded the Conservative reputation for honesty and integrity. So far, Sunak has not done enough to make a decisive break. Strengthening the enforcement of standards in public life and committing to truthfulness in politics would be a good start.
Commitment to the rule of law is something Thatcher saw as fundamentally conservative, and it’s a bedrock of trust in government. She said that “the first duty of Government is to uphold the law. If it tries to bob and weave and duck around that duty when its inconvenient, if government does that, then so will the governed, and then nothing is safe—not home, not liberty, not life itself.”
Sidestepping the courts and international law when it is convenient might move some refugees to Rwanda. But is that a price worth paying, especially given the damage it does to our soft power abroad?
She also respected our democratic institutions. She would not have allowed Parliament to be routinely sidestepped by the Government by making major announcements to the media first. Nor, despite her impatience to deliver on her promises, did she make extensive use of regulation-making powers which reduce meaningful Parliamentary scrutiny.
Second, Thatcher connected with younger people’s aspirations in ways the modern Tory party has failed to do. Much of Thatcher’s popularity came from helping people who would never otherwise be able to own their own home to buy one through the Right-to-buy scheme.
Homeownership is now looking once again like a distant dream for many young people. Even when they can afford it, many new housing developments lack the investment in community infrastructure that makes a local house a real home and creates real opportunity.
Many young people also fear for their future. I worked with Mrs Thatcher on the environment and global warming in her final years in Downing Street, and she demonstrated international leadership on an issue that affects the lives of young people and children even more deeply today.
Speaking at the UN in 1989, she called for international conventions to stop global warming and the destruction of animal and plant species. Making the environment a wedge issue and criminalising a generation of peaceful young climate change protestors through harsh new laws is the wrong direction of travel for a party that needs to connect with younger voters. In 1989, Mrs Thatcher held a secret summit with Jonathan Porritt, the leader of Friends of the Earth. That is unimaginable, today.
Finally, one thing Sunak should not take from his predecessor. Mrs Thatcher pursued divide and rule tactics, and often talked about ‘the enemy within’. Her speech on the steps of Number 10 about bringing harmony where there is discord was quite the reverse of her natural style, which has left lasting scars in the form of the North-South divide, with a persistent feeling that the Government doesn’t care about whole swathes of the country.
The modern version – culture wars and closing down dialogue with civil society – is turning off the public and sapping energy when so many of our issues need social forces to come together to solve the common problems we face. There’s so much potential for government to work with the voluntary sector in a preventative way – for example, levelling up, creating good health and well-being in the community, and helping people into work.
But that will only happen if government starts working in partnership, and removes the barriers it has erected, including contracts that prevent charities from speaking up or suggesting changes in policy to them.
Thatcher’s victory 45 years ago may seem like distant history, but there’s no time like the present for learning from the past and considering a new approach.
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Author: Caroline Slocock
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