Evaluate the view that the current Conservative Party has moved away from Thatcherism

Thatcherism consisted of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatives, which led to a free market, economic stance developed on the principles of Adam Smith, and a harsher enforcement of law and order and a patriotic focus on foreign policy. The current Conservative government, under Boris Johsnon has economically moved away from Thatcherism to an economy that has more state intervention, although many policies on law and order, and foreign policy remain consistent with Thatcherism. Thus, the current conseravtive party has not moved away from Thatcherism.

The Conservative Party has moved away from Thatcherism economically. Thatcher had a neo liberal stance economically, which entails free market competition, privatisation of industries, cutting taxes and government spending. This is evident from the legal restrictions Thatcher placed on trade unions, as she wanted to limit intervention in the economy. This contradicts the recent policies of Boris Johnson’s government, which has hugely increased spending and a rise in taxes. For example, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £170 billion investment programme in the 2020 budget, in order to boost economic growth. This is furthered by Micheal Gove, who announced that public investment in Research and Development will increase by 40% across many areas of the UK in 2022. This is part of Boris Johnson's policy of ‘levelling up the north’, and aligns with the One nation organic society view. Furthermore, the government spent £69 billion on the furlough scheme between 2020-21, in order to keep people in employment during the covid pandemic. This is a contrast to leaving employment to market forces like Thatcherism. This market intervention gives Johsnon more of a One Nation stance, rather than New Right like under Thatcher. Not only has there been a massive increase in government spending, but taxes are also rising rapidly. Rishi Sunak said in the 2022 Budget that National Insurance would rise by 1.25%, which is a historically huge amount and will go to investment in social and health. Therefore, Boris Johnson's government can be seen to be more of a interventionist state with large amounts of welfare spending, which differed largely from economic policies under thatcherism. 

However, the current Conservative Party only moved away from Thatcherism to the extent it has because of the covid pandemic. In the conservatives 2019 manifesto, they promised to not raise national insurance contributions, VAT and income tax. These policies fit in with the belief that people should keep their wealth. It is evident that the Conservatives manifesto pledge to decrease taxation was not carried out because of covid and in the future the government will move more towards a New Right stance. Furthermore, since 2010 the party has supported welfare reform which has led to a reduction of benefits through benefit caps, the ‘bedroom tax’ and introduction of universal credit. These policies support the view that welfare leads to dependency, and that market- based solutions to services are preferable. So perhaps it is arguably that in the long-term the government wants to move towards a New Right stance on economy and that the several lockdowns during the pandemic has forced the government to intervene in the short-run with policies like the furlough scheme. Without the furlough scheme, businesses would fail and this would lead to a ‘dependency culture’ on benefits, which in the long run would lead to more government spending on a less productive group. Furthermore, the conservative party's stance on taxation is partly neo-liberal and one nation. On one hand, it wants to decrease corporation tax to boost economic growth, which aligns with Thatcherism. However, the government has also recognised that taxes on lower incomes are too high, creating poverty, which is a one-nation view. Thus, in the 2022 budget Rishi Sunak announced a decrease in income tax from 20% to 19% in 2024. Whilst it is arguable that the conservatives will move further towards Thatcherism, the huge amount of spending and taxation in the previous years clearly highlights the One Nation stance that Boris Johnson has taken, particularly with the levelling up scheme.

However, when it comes to law and order much of the government's policies align with Thatcherism. Thatcher believed in neoconservatism, where strong forces of law and order should be imposed in an authoritarian state to impose social morality. This has been stressed by the government, who have limited various freedoms to ensure the success of lockdown measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. This included the use of statutory instruments to create policies such as the ‘rule of six’, which limited the number of people you can meet, thus your freedom. Moreover, Dominic Raab has made plans to repeal the HRA, to give more power to the government to choose when rights should be upheld. This aligns with the new right view that sentencing policy should be in the hands of an elected government and not unelected judges. Recent legislation passed also highlights the crackdown on crime. For example, in 2021 the government introduced the Police, crime, sentencing and courts bill into Parliament, which will limit the freedom to protest, as ‘noisey’ protests can be shut down by the police. As well as both the 2017 and 2019 conservative manifestos pledging to alter the HRA to ensure it had the ability to deal with national threats such as terrorism, this is becasue the tory view is that the HRA has been abused and is now a charter for criminals and terrorists. The extent to which freedom has, and is planning to be limited emphasises the strong similarities between the current conseravtiev government and thatcherism.

This view is limited by recent events. In 2022, Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson have been fined for breaking covid rules that they introduced. This is a serious breach of ministerial code, and the partygate scandal which revealed many illegal gatherings the conservatives had during the lockdowns, means that both Johnson and Sunak should resign. By breaking the law and ministerial code and not resigning, this sets a tone that law and order is weak. The labour party has also pointed out that under the conservatives there are 23,000 nuisance incidents of anti-social behaviour every week. Thus, whilst the conservatives have limited many civil liberties such as protesting and freedom  of movement, they have failed to enforce strong law and order throughout the country. Therefore, although the stance on law and order has not moved away from Thatcherism, it is a weaker version. This approach to law and order is not shared by all conservatives. In the coalition government the then justice secretary the One Nation Tory Ken Clarke said ‘prison does not work’ and he sought to rebalance the criminal justice system by introducing more liberal measures such as rehabilitation and community sentences rather than punitive prison sentences. However this approach was short lived, the backbenchers were angered by these policies and within time Clarke was moved away from this role. 

Furthermore, when it comes to foreign policy the current conservative government aligns with Thatcherism. Whilst Thatcher backed joining the European Economic Community, she increasingly became resistant to it as her time as prime minister went on. Thatcher felt that the EEC was venturing into areas that interfered with individual countries' sovereignty such as a single currency. It was becoming more than an economic agreement to federal europe. This largely aligns with Boris Johnson’s view that being part of the EU took away the sovereignty from Britain. Moreover, the conservatives continually supported investment into nuclear weapons. The party is committed to retaining the Uk’s independent nuclear deterrent in the form of Trident submarine-based weapons. This aligns with Thatcherism, as Thatcher encouraged investment in nuclear weaponry, due to the ongoing threat from the Soviet Union. This also extends to the government's stance on migration. In 2020, the home secretary, Priti Patel, proposed a points-based immigration system to reduce unskilled migration. Thatcher also argued strongly in the 1970s that immigration needed to be reduced. Therefore, the current government mostly aligns with Thatcherism on foreign policy.However, although the majority of Conservative MPs support Brexit now, at the time of the referendum in 2016, most conservative MPs campaigned to remain in the EU. This position fits in with the pro-EU stance of One Nation Conservatives. 

In conclusion whilst it may seem like on the economy, the most important aspect of thatcherism, that the conservatives have moved away from her ideals, in reality this is only a temporary situation. It is clear that the party still remains wedded to her principles and in the years ahead, it is likely to move back into a pro austerity, fiscally conservative party. 

Rebecca Bailes