Is Labour MP Shabana Mahmood the ‘Thatcher of the left?’

The ink was barely dry on Shabana Mahmood’s letter of appointment as home secretary by Keir Starmer when speculation began that she could follow him as Labour leader one day. Until her promotion, little was known about Mahmood, 44 and the MP for Birmingham Ladywood. So let’s fill in some of the gaps. Her father owned a small shop, she attended state schools, was awarded a second-class degree at Oxford University, was elected to run a prestigious student body, and qualified as a barrister.

She became an MP, served in her party’s Treasury team before rising quickly through ministerial ranks, and is renowned at Westminster for her no-nonsense approach and working 16-hour days. She takes a small-”c” conservative stance on social and ethical issues, is devoutly religious, has won praise from Jewish leaders for opposing antisemitism, supports tough action on immigration, and is less slavishly pro-European than her deeply unpopular party leader.

Moreover, unlike Starmer, she has a clear sense of direction and , in her mid-40s , finds herself being talked about as a future leader and saviour of her party and the country. That is a summary of Mahmood’s impressive personal and political career so far. And remarkably, every single detail fits the CV of another notable female politician: Margaret Thatcher. Which is why some are describing Mahmood as the “Thatcher of the left”. On first hearing, it sounds implausible, impertinent even.

Mahmood is a Labour MP, a Muslim with Pakistani parents, and represents a parliamentary constituency with one of the highest unemployment rates in the West Midlands and where most constituents are non-white. She has been fighting the Tories for much of her life.

Thatcher was a Conservative MP from a strict Methodist background who represented prosperous Finchley in north London and led her party to three crushing election victories over Labour. But look deeper and the comparison starts to make more sense. Mahmood has been made home secretary to show the toughness that predecessor Yvette Cooper lacked, close migrant hotels and stop the boats — and see off the threat from Nigel Farage and Reform in the process.

It is a tall order, and more significantly, represents a dramatic shift to the right by Starmer. Mahmood stands for a more down-to-earth type of socialism than Starmer and his well-heeled, radical, trendy set in north London. She has a different personal style too. Unlike Starmer, she refused to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet because of her political principles.

When the reserved Starmer talked lately of flying the red and white flag of St George in his Downing Street flat, it prompted sceptical groans. When Mahmood speaks of her patriotism, a near taboo on the hard left, it rings with authenticity. She has declared a “natural affinity for the faith, family and flag element of Blue Labour”, an organisation which claims the party has lost touch with its working-class roots. “If you were trying to put me in a box , you would say social, small-’c’ conservative,” she added.

Counter-intuitively, her Muslim faith is seen as an asset in her ability to get to grips with the migrant crisis, a large proportion of whom are Muslim. Mahmood displays none of the timidity of Labour politicians who tiptoe around this delicate issue. “I just don’t know why we’ve got ourselves in a tangle talking about migration control on the left of politics, because it is pretty fundamental to the way a lot of our voters think,” she has said with characteristic bluntness. Similarly, her religious views guide her unabashedly robust position on a series of moral issues that place her closer to Farage than to many of her fellow Labour MPs.

These include her support for JK Rowling’s stance on the gender wars; challenging the way LGBTQ is taught in some schools; criticising her own government for failing to tackle the grooming gang scandal; reportedly contemplating watering down Britain’s membership of the European Court of Human Rights, and, most provocative of all, saying she would consider ordering the castration of some sex offenders.

One of her most prominent cheerleaders, Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of Blue Labour, explains Mahmood’s appeal thus: “She is just a completely normal human being, which is remarkable within Labour... a normal person who just hates mugging, bullying, phone theft. She thinks it is disgusting. She believes it is her moral duty to serve her country.”

Doubtless her shopkeeper father would approve of her law-and-order approach: he used to keep a cricket bat below the till to deter would-be shoplifters. They are a close family: the home secretary still lives next door to her parents. Ex-Labour minister Lord (Tom) Watson, a close ally of Gordon Brown, is another fan. “She is consistent and relentless in her brief. She turns up early to work every day, never fails to finish a (red ministerial) box , and never puts off a problem. For her, parliamentary recesses and weekends are just an opportunity for more work.” He could be talking about Thatcher, who reputedly got by on four hours’ sleep a night and regularly challenged terrified ministers on the minutiae of their own portfolio.

It is not a comparison that embarrasses Mahmood, who names Thatcher as one of her heroines. She says she admires her for the way she “broke the mould”, rose to the top in a “patriarchal system”, and for “representing women”. Tellingly, Mahmood was recently the subject of a flattering profile in the right-wing Spectator magazine written by its editor, former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove. He called her the “politically sharpest” member of Starmer’s Cabinet and praised her for possessing the “steeliness” of “Iron Lady” Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead her party half a century ago after the man who put her in his cabinet, Tory prime minister Edward Heath, lost power through a dismal failure of leadership in an economic and wider political national crisis. Starmer will be hoping Mahmood and her Thatcherite-tinged “Blue Labour” beliefs save him from a similar fate, rather than repeating history.