Tributes to Margaret Thatcher are a familiar sight at Conservative party conferences.
However, the presence of the “Iron Lady” is particularly palpable at this year’s gathering in Manchester, as attendees commemorate the centenary of her birth in 1925.
Alongside customary displays like cardboard cut-outs and commemorative mugs, a special exhibition showcases a selection of the former Prime Minister’s most iconic outfits from her 11 years in office.
Delegates are invited to contribute their photos to a Thatcher mosaic projected onto a wall, while a cocktail bar hosts a “Maggie’s 100th” party, complete with a live DJ spinning “everyone’s favourite disco hits.”
The party’s inclination to invoke its most successful leader at this juncture is understandable, even if observers question its enduring fascination with a figure it ousted from power over three decades ago.
Kemi Badenoch, nearing her first anniversary as Tory leader next month, is contending with the challenge of revitalizing the Conservatives following last year’s electoral setback and subsequent decline in opinion polls.
Reportedly, she is drawing inspiration from Mrs. Thatcher’s legacy, having been reading a book about her predecessor’s early years in office.
However, the party is also deliberating whether the Thatcher era offers relevant lessons for Badenoch as she seeks to restore the party’s standing.
Robert Colvile, a co-author of the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto and director of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank established by Thatcher in the mid-1970s, notes that Badenoch faces a different economic landscape.
Speaking at an anniversary event, he suggested Badenoch could emulate Thatcher in identifying the party’s political targets.
While Thatcher confronted unions and state-backed industries, Colvile proposed that the Tories should now aim to restrain the “lanyard classes” within government bodies that are “constraining the growth of enterprise.”
John Redwood, a former Tory MP who once led Thatcher’s policy unit in Downing Street, suggested the British energy industry could galvanize party activists.
He argued the sector had become “like a nationalised industry” due to significant public subsidies and “bans and blocks” implemented to achieve net-zero targets.
Conservative MP Esther McVey told party members that Thatcher would be “spinning in her grave” at GB Energy, the new company set up by Labour to invest in green energy projects.
McVey also contended that the party could learn from Thatcher’s approach in rebuilding its reputation as a competent manager of the British economy.
This is perhaps the central message the party aims to convey this week, as it seeks to portray Nigel Farage’s spending proposals as a threat to public finances.
McVey, a former work and pensions secretary, said Reform UK’s promise to scrap the two-child benefit cap, a policy backed by the Lib Dems and also under consideration by Labour, could leave the Tories as the only main party pushing to keep the limit in place.
“The economy is where the Conservatives are going to get their breakthrough,” she added. “That is, I think, going to be our separation, our USP.”
Redwood pointed out that Thatcher also faced an electoral challenge from a new party, in the shape of the SDP, which polled as high as 50% in the 1980s as part of an alliance with the Liberals.
He added that the Tories didn’t “spend our time talking about or worrying about the social democrats,” instead focusing on “being Conservatives”.
As the governing party at the time, he added, it was “incumbent on us” to show the party could deliver its policy programme.
If Badenoch can repeat the trick in opposition, it could decide whether she can lead her party back into government.
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