Thatcher? Brexit? This isn’t the way to Labour hearts | William Keegan

Tory policy has caused huge damage over the decades. In praising it, Starmer has ventured too far behind enemy lines

As a longtime critic of many of Mrs Thatcher's economic and social policies, I was somewhat taken aback by the enthusiasm with which the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, recently bracketed her with Clement Attlee and Tony Blair.

I don't think I am alone. In what was a none too subtle, indeed blatant, attempt to attract voters away from the fissiparous remains of the Conservative party, Starmer has taken quite a chance. It can be hazardous to venture behind enemy lines: he risks alienating traditional Labour voters, indeed whole communities, for whom the memory of the social scars of the 1980s is still very much present.