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

Margaret Thatcher’s premiership between 1979 and 1990 was marked with a massive break of the Conservative party from the “post-war consensus” orthodoxy of her predecessors towards a neoliberal and neoconservative statesmanship known as Thatcherism. As Nigel Lawson described, Thatcherism put a heavy emphasis on “Free Market, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, ‘Victorian values’ (of the self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism” exemplified by the “Big Bang” and cuts to public service funds. However, modern conservative leaders such as David Cameron recently tried to redefine the Conservative party as a compassionate party due to Thatcherism’s brutal emphasis on “self-reliance”. Overall, the Conservative Party has started to move away from this Thatcherism politically, economically and socially.

Politically, the Conservative Party has no doubt changed many of its individualistic Thatcherite features into more inclusive ones. Thatcher insisted that there was “no such thing as society”, evoking a very atomistic individualism, where individuals live independently from one another. She advocated for strong authoritarian centralisation of government and tough law and order. The Criminal Justice Act in 1982 resulted in courts imposing lengthier prison sentences and custodial sentences. The Act effectively shifted the criminal justice system away from rehabilitation towards retributive sentencing. This is the complete opposite of the current Conservative Party which has shifted towards one nation Conservatism. David Cameron’s detoxification of the Conservative Party aimed to detoxify the “nasty party” (a term coined by Theresa May) into a compassionate conservatives. He believed in “Big Society” and a “consensus” politics, emphasising the bonds between people as opposed to Thatcherite individualism and even advocated for the “hug a hoodie” campaign while promoting rehabilitation for criminals instead of maximising retribution. This concept of society is very much a one nation conservatism idea, a way of seeing society not as atomistic individuals but as a sea of little platoons that cooperate with one another. Hence, why the conservative party has moved away from Thatcherism politically.

On the other hand, other political stances such as euro-skepticism have still remained consistent in the modern Conservative Party. Margaret Thatcher became a symbol of early euroskepticism during her last few years in office despite having backed Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) and voting yes in the 1975 EEC membership referendum. In fact, she was a very big opponent to the Maastricht treaty. She became a euroskeptic on the grounds that the Maastricht treaty would slowly erode British sovereignty and replace it by EU authority, once again echoing the values of nationalism and self-determination present in Thatcherism. Much of the pro-Brexit argument coming from the modern Conservative Party had to do with how the UK’s sovereignty kept getting pooled by the EU. The main reason why Boris Johnson managed to win the 2019 general election was because of his party’s pro-Brexit stance. They pledged to use EU memberships fees for the NHS, taking back control of British fisheries with Britain first in mind, once again reflecting the nationalistic stance of Thatcherism still present in the Conservative Party. However, it would be quite wrong to say that the Conservative Party as a whole was pro-Brexit. Theresa May used to be pro-EU and said that Brexit would seriously damage the economy and security. She also said that Brexit could potentially become fatal for the union with Scotland. It was only because of David Cameron’s resignation that she had to u-turn and show a pro-Brexit position, although a ‘soft’ one. Furthermore, 21 MPs were kicked out of the Conservative Party by Boris Johnson due to their pro-EU beliefs and their insistence to vote against the party. This shows that the Conservative Party is split on the matter.

Many Thatcherite ideas relating to self-reliance and the obligation to “ride one’s bike to find a job” without depending on the State have changed in tone and emphasis by the modern Conservative Party, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. £73 billion was given by the Boris Johnson Conservative government to help out individuals and businesses through programs such as the furlough scheme which payed for 80% of the wages of 9.5 million people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. This signifies a large shift towards Keynesian economics and a return to the welfare state that acts paternalistically, very different from the Thatcher era which saw a drop in public spending from 44.6% to 38.9%. An added £127 billion given to the NHS also meant further state intervention and aid to public expenditure, something Thatcher would have been wary of. These economic interventions prove that the Conservative Party has adopted more Keynesian policies as opposed to neoliberal ones and hence why they have moved on from Thatcherism.

On the other hand, Thatcherite policies were still implemented in government policy for many national industries in the early 2010s under the Conservative Party. Thatcher was very much pro-privatisation. 40 UK state-owned businesses in coal, gas, steel and even telecommunication employing 600,000 workers had been privatised during her premiership, totalling £60 billion in sale of national assets. This economic policy was also adopted by Cameron during his premiership. In 2013, the Royal Mail was privatised which indicates that Thatcherism as an economic idea has not yet been fully abandoned by the Conservative Party. Furthermore, austerity still played a very big part in David Cameron’s premiership in order to cut annual budget deficits, cutting £14,3 billion from 2010 to 2013 in many areas ranging from education to local governments. This austerity presents a similar approach to the “sound finance” adopted by Thatcher from 1979 till 1990 that was also partly done in order to reduce budget deficit. Nevertheless, the reason why austerity was implemented was not necessarily because of Thatcherism’s dogmatic drive but instead because of what Cameron called a pragmatic necessity.

Thatcher was also a social conservative who advocated for the nuclear family and traditional Victorian values. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 that was passed during her time as prime minister stated that local authorities shall not “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. This highlighted Thatcherism’s strong opposition against a permissive, socially liberal society. Instead, she advocated for traditional Christian values. These alienating attitudes towards sexual minorities were repelled by recent Conservative Governments. David Cameron introduced the Marriage Act 2013, making same-sex marriages in England and Wales legal. Theresa May later echoed his thoughts when she announced a consultation on gender recognition laws for transgender people and Boris Johnson followed in 2021 when he announced his plans to ban conversion therapy in the Queens Speech. This shows that the Conservative Party’s views have indeed changed from the old Thatcherite view of the nuclear family as newer forms of social and family values are being accepted. More importantly, this also means that the rigid dogmatic view on social issues from Thatcherism have now been replaced by the one nation conservative idea of changing to conserve, showing once again how the Conservative Party has separated itself from Thatcherism.

However, even though it could be said that most rigid social new right values of Thatcherism have been abandoned by the Conservative Party in general terms, not all conservative MPs support gay rights. The Conservative Party may still have the biggest amount of gay representation in Parliament with 20 gay MPs but the Marriage Act 2013 was only passed 400 to 175 because the majority of the opposition voted for the government and not because the whole Conservative Party was united in Parliament. 136 MPs voted against the Act, making up nearly 45% of conservative seats in Parliament. Jacob Rees-Mogg for instance has consistently voted against same-sex marriage and many others have been outspoken against same-sex marriage meaning that old family values coming from Thatcherism are still very much present in the Conservative Party. It could of course be argued that these values do not directly originate from Thatcherism and could more likely originate from older traditional forms of conservatism where traditional nuclear family values have already existed far before Thatcherism.

Overall, it has become clear that the Conservative Party has moved decisively away from Thatcherism. Euroskepticism and the occasional divisions in the Conservative Party might showcase the presence of Thatcherite influence in the Conservative Party but the fact that recent conservative leaders have tried to redefine the Conservative Party as a compassionate party to remove the image of being an individualistic Thatcherite party only shows that they have evidently tried to abandon most Thatcherite ideas. Further proven by the recent Keynesian policies announced by Rishi Sunak in the Boris Johnson administration and the 2013 onwards legislation of progressive social acts in Conservative Governments, it remains clear that the Conservative Party has moved decisively away from Thatcherism.

Nabil Winarso