A Tory MP was humiliated after ranting about what Margaret Thatcher would do tackle today’s issues – before remembering that her party was in power for 14 years
A Tory MP was humiliated after ranting about what Margaret Thatcher would do to tackle today’s issues – before remembering that her party was in power for 14 years and didn’t do those things.
At an event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, celebrating 100 years since Ms Thatcher was born, Esther McVey faced laughter from Tory members over her party’s recent record in government.
It came as Ms McVey – formerly Rishi Sunak’s minister for common sense – said Ms Thatcher, the controversial former Tory PM, would be “spinning in her grave” over Labour’s GB Energy as she went on a rant about quangos.
The MP for Tatton said Sir Tony Blair unleashed a “monster” of quangos, saying: “They are now dictating to us what goes on, and you can’t get information out of them.
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“They’re in control of what they do, and the government actually has completely diminished in power. Well, she (Ms Thatcher) would be changing that straight away…”
Then Ms McVey suddenly added: “And you might say, why didn’t the Conservatives do it? 14 years…”
Robert Colvile, host of the panel and director of the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, then quipped: “That’s what I was going to say”, before Tory members erupted into laughter in the room.
Ms McVey scrambled to say the “public is always ahead of politicians”, continuing: “But I believe there is now a time where there is an alignment of politicians and the public.”
It comes after Labour savaged Kemi Badenoch for failing to apologise for her 14 years in power. A party spokesman hit out at the Tory leader after she was interviewed about a series of policies on BBC this morning.
The spokesman said: “Kemi Badenoch has been Conservative Leader for 338 days now and the British people are still waiting for an apology for the mistakes her party made. Her Conservative Party has learned absolutely nothing from 14 years of failure.
“Badenoch can’t answer the most basic questions about the policies she’s supposedly spent months thinking about. It’s the same old Tory Party making the same old mistakes – and the public shouldn’t and won’t forgive them.
“While the Tories and Reform scrap over who’s copying whose policies, Labour firmly chooses the path of national renewal, by driving forwards growth, securing our borders and making working people better off.”
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