A gala dinner at London's Guildhall marking the 100th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's birth has highlighted a battle for her political legacy between the Conservative Party and Reform UK. The event, held on Monday evening, featured a keynote speech by Boris Johnson, with guests including Thatcher's son Mark, Joan Collins, Julian Fellowes and Jeffrey Archer. However, current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was notably absent, opting instead to attend a separate party fundraiser in Greenwich.
The dinner's main sponsor, Mohamed Amersi, who has donated £500,000 to the Tories in the past but has more recently backed Nigel Farage's party, said there is a competition over who best carries forward Thatcher's legacy. He argued that Thatcher would have been sympathetic to much of Reform's agenda, though he noted she was a reluctant remainer. Amersi dismissed Badenoch as the answer to the Tories' challenges, saying there was 'not a chance in hell' she was the solution.
Badenoch has drawn parallels between herself and Thatcher, but some Conservative sources suggest that even the party's rightwing pays lip service to her memory while viewing her small-state philosophy as out of step with modern Britain. Sir Rocco Forte, a Brexit-backing hotelier who funded Johnson's campaign, said there is no current standard bearer for Thatcher's ideas, though he still sees Badenoch as a serious believer in her principles.
Tickets for the sold-out Guildhall event ranged from £195 to £3,000, and guests included Tory grandees like Michael Howard alongside Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice. Tice carefully likened Thatcher to his party leader Nigel Farage, describing her as a transformational leader who challenged the status quo. He stopped short of saying she would be a Reform supporter today.
Other events planned for the centenary include a dinner at the Carlton Club and a 1980s-themed disco at an iconic central London nightclub. The Centre for Policy Studies, the think tank Thatcher co-founded, also held events. Its director Robert Colvile said opinion polls consistently show Thatcher as the most effective leader, and that the country is again in a situation of decline similar to when she took office. He noted that even Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has admitted admiration for her ability to bring change, despite disagreeing with her policies.
