Margaret Thatcher’s economics: a study in ruthlessness

Photo: Tim Graham / Alamy Stock Photo

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss both claim to be the true heir of Margaret Thatcher’s economics. In one sense they are both right—but in another, more important, sense they are both emphatically wrong. 

They’re both right because the self-styled Iron Lady was, in reality, inconsistent enough that each of them can fairly claim to represent a different stage of her evolution: tax-raising Rishi is the hairshirted Thatcher of the early eighties, whereas largesse Liz stands for the hubristic shoulder-pad economics of her later days. They’re both wrong because even now, 40 years on, so many of our national…