Margaret Thatcher is far more popular with the ‘red wall’ than you think – and Boris Johnson knows it

The Westminster bubble has always had a tendency to see the North as one homogenous cell bound together by our disapproval of Thatcher. It simply isn’t true, though

Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool on 12 October 1972 (Getty)

Boris Johnson certainly has a knack for bad jokes and his repertoire is nothing if not varied. Past “hits” include quips about dead bodies on the coast of Libya and tank-topped bum boys. He’s not quite Roy Chubby Brown, but he does seem to have an inexorable compulsion towards being provocative.

Last week, he made arguably his bravest attempt at banter yet and in doing so invoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher. Our prime minister is a dedicated agitator – but at the expense of enraging newfound northern members of the Tories? Surely not. Unless of course he knows (as I do) that Thatcher isn’t nearly as unpopular in and around the “red wall” as everyone likes to believe.

There are some who loathe Thatcher. In fact, that doesn’t do it justice – they are physically repulsed at the mere mention of her name. Following her death in 2013, “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” reached number two in the UK Singles Chart. Many revelled in sheer delight at the news.

To some people, she is the devil incarnate. These cranks probably weren’t even directly affected by Thatcher’s policies but they’re morbidly addicted to the monstrous narrative attached to her. On the other hand, there are some that are justifiably hurt and angered by her legacy. This is seen most predominantly in communities with links to the coal mining industry. Johnson should expect to receive some condemnation and criticism from these people after apparently laughing when stating: “Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.”

Of course, politics is an opportunistic game and this was a seemingly wide open goal for Johnson’s opponents to seize on. Finally – they thought – the ghost of Bullingdon past has let his mask slip and is at last revealing his contempt for the red wall. Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of being “out of touch” and called for him to apologise. The ever patient Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, wrote in the Evening Standard that “it will have raised eyebrows in the red wall seats”.

Labour, a party that has recently been pushing the message that we must look to the future, is still preoccupied with strikes that took place in the 1980s. Indeed Keir Starmer, perhaps it is you who is out of touch. Yours was a decent gesture no doubt borne out of empathy and understanding but it concerns a fight that has long since passed. You might say, we’ve slept since then.

This highlights an increasingly visible problem for the Labour Party: they’ve lost touch with the north. And in trying to shake off their cosmopolitan shackles, they’ve sold themselves a false narrative that traditional voters are still perturbed by historical issues. Going back to your roots does not mean literally entering a time machine. It is sad to see that Thatcher still haunts Labour from beyond the grave and their obsession with the north’s supposed universal disliking for her is often misguided.

Perhaps the north has always been more right wing than people like to imagine. One YouGov survey reveals that Thatcher is believed to be Britain’s greatest post-war leader. Indeed, of the 14 prime ministers since 1945, Thatcher tops the list with 21 per cent of the vote. In the north, she comes second only to Winston Churchill. A similar piece of research carried out by IpsosMORI found that 40 per cent of northern respondents think Thatcher did a good job.

Always remember that when Thatcher was asked for her greatest achievement, she replied: “Tony Blair and New Labour”. He still remains the party’s most successful leader. The two are politically dissimilar, but they are unified in their confidence and unwavering vision. Thatcher was irrevocably stubborn, but then again, so is the British public. We will go down with this Brexit ship. The people are not for turning.

And yet the Westminster bubble has always had a tendency to see the North as one homogenous cell bound together by our disapproval of Thatcher. Outside central Manchester, presumably we’re all living on the set of Billy Elliot nursing our miners-strike hangovers. It may come as a surprise to some, but not everyone worked in the pit. The majority of northern boomers and their offspring didn’t visit a picket line: they read about it like everyone else. The fact that political heavyweights are choosing to exploit this remark by Johnson shows that what they think is important to us rarely ever is.

Forgive me for thinking that this concern for our “red wall” feelings is both irrational and unwarranted. Johnson’s comment was not controversial, nor does it deserve faux-outrage.