Margaret Thatcher ‘would not be the slightest bit upset’ by the controversy generated by her death and modern Britain needs a dash of her resolve, William Hague said last night.
The Foreign Secretary paid tribute as a ICM poll for the Guardian showed the Tories would soar to 40 per cent in the polls if Lady Thatcher were still its leader.
Devoting his entire annual speech at the Lord Mayor’s Easter Banquet to her memory, Mr Hague suggested the Tories needed to show Thatcherite determination on issues ranging from reform of public services to tax rates and Britain’s future in Europe.
Devoted: Foreign secretary William Hague paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher in his speech yesterday
In death as in life, Lady Thatcher had ‘drawn both praise and opposition’, he noted. Speaking of her legacy, he said: ‘She, who prized freedom above all things, would not be in the slightest bit upset by the disagreement.’
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Paying lavish tribute to the former prime minister, the Foreign Secretary quoted his predecessor Douglas Hurd, who recalled her using the words of Shakespeare’s Henry V as she prepared for the Falklands War: ‘He who hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart.’
Inspiration: William Hague with Margaret Thatcher in 1999 who said he was shaped by her achievements
Speaking of her legacy William Hague said she prized freedom above all things and would not be upset by the disagreement
Support: Margaret Thatcher with a 16-year-old schoolboy William Hague after he received a standing ovation from delegates during the debate on economic policy at the Tory Party conference in Blackpool in 1977
Citing tributes ranging from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to the leaders of Kuwait and Estonia, Mr Hague hailed her ‘moral clarity’, saying governments around the world could learn from her example.
He suggested this decade is again one in which Britain must demonstrate her ‘firmness of purpose’, including having ‘the resolve to confront our national debt, reform our schools, our health system, our welfare system and our tax system’.
The Guardian poll puts Labour on 38 per cent, the Tories on 32, the Liberal Democrats on 15 and UKIP, nine.
But when voters were asked ‘imagine for a moment that a younger Margaret Thatcher were the leader’, it suggests that the Tories would rise to 40 per cent, putting them three points ahead of Labour, which would fall to 37.
Mr Hague said while some, including him, would ‘always be inspired and shaped by her achievements... others may never reconcile themselves to her policies or her character’.
But he noted that from friend or foe, tributes to Lady Thatcher had been ‘strikingly unanimous’.
Abroad, her name will always be synonymous with firmness, national pride and strength of character, and that is something for us all to be proud of,’ he said.
