Truss will build on Thatcher’s traditional Conservative legacy

Iknew Margaret Thatcher very well. She was a strong woman who had traditional Conservative family values. Time and again she won elections because of her principles, which were based on freedom, free enterprise and democracy.

In this leadership election, we have an opportunity to reaffirm those values, and Liz Truss and Suella Braverman are examples of how Mrs Thatcher inspired future politicians.

On Ukraine and Putin, Miss Truss has demonstrated decisive and courageous action, leading from the front – just as Thatcher did on the Atlantic Alliance, and with the same kind of Falklands spirit.

She is not and will not be deterred. Thatcher understood the need to cut taxes, and Liz does too, recognising that it promotes enterprise, employment, competition and productivity, along with technological innovation, and generates growth to counter inflationary increases in the cost of living caused by external global forces. Revived freedoms that release us from EU regulation will kick start a new Big Bang in the small, medium and large businesses throughout the country, something Thatcher did so successfully in the 1980s.

Essential to Liz’s team is Suella Braverman, who embodies the case for Brexit, which Liz herself has embraced. Suella courageously resigned on principle from May’s government over the disastrous Chequers deal, with a fully reasoned article in The Telegraph. She then, despite intense opposition, stood foursquare behind her principles and voted against the Withdrawal Agreement in March 2019. This led to May’s resignation, the advent of Boris Johnson and the Brexit revolution after the 2019 General Election that brought about the Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020 that insisted on self-government and sovereignty in Section 38.

Together, they persuaded Boris Johnson and the Cabinet to push ahead with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill that well on its way through the Commons.

This was historic as it insisted that Northern Ireland was crucial to the UK’s territorial and constitutional integrity. The Bill insists on the democratic rights of voters in Northern Ireland, within the United Kingdom, remedying the democratic deficit that made them subject to laws passed by Brussels, behind closed doors by a qualified majority vote of EU countries, without so much as a transcript.

Thatcher completely agreed with the principles of Brexit. One of her last Commons votes was for a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty – and she would have revelled in the freedoms we have gained and the establishment of our right to self-government through elected representatives in our own Parliament.

As one who has consistently fought this very long fight – on a long march that we in the Conservative Party won together in the 2019 General Election, and having so far not declared, I urge those from other teams to recall when casting their votes in future rounds that we truly belong together.

We need to focus on what unites us – doing the right thing for the right reasons, promoting our values, saving our precious Union and winning the next General Election.

Margaret Thatcher would agree.