A Labour MP who went against the grain during House of Commons tributes to Margaret Thatcher has gone viral on the back of recent comments made by members of Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow Cabinet.
The late Glenda Jackson, who passed away in June 2023, stole the show during Commons tributes to the former Tory leader in 2013, saying she had wreaked “heinous social, economic and spiritual damage” upon the UK during her premiership.
Her speech caused an uproar when she delivered it, with many Tories particularly outraged by her comment: “The first Prime Minister of female gender, OK. But a woman? Not on my terms.”
But Jackson insisted in comments made in the aftermath of the speech “I was meticulous in not being personally rude. I didn’t know the woman: I did know the policies. I spoke up because history has been rewritten over the past week. I lived through the Thatcher period. I know what it was like. I know what it was like for my constituents. The reality bore no resemblance to what’s being presented.”
She said she was also struck by the way the tributes are being led by the Conservatives, when it was the Conservative leadership that sacked Margaret Thatcher in 1990. “That’s another thing – the manner of her going hasn’t been touched on. I find that bemusing,” she said.
With dozens of Labour MPs staying away for the occasion, Jackson delivered her speech from an almost empty Labour bench, in front of Tory benches packed with MPs who were jeering and shouting at her to sit down, and one of whom made a formal complaint to the Speaker.
The speech has resurfaced after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy all lauded Thatcher in comments that have sparked outrage among those who have a less favourable memory of her legacy:
