The Victoria and Albert Museum has said it will review its labelling of Margaret Thatcher as a ‘contemporary villain’ alongside Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden after sparking backlash from Tory MPs.
The London museum was branded ‘disgraceful’ and ‘moronic’ by Conservative Party members after Britain’s first female prime minister was included in its list of ‘unpopular public figures’.
The label appears in a current display on British humour through the ages, under a set of Victorian Punch and Judy puppets with a caption headed: ‘That’s the way to do it?’
The words state: ‘Over the years, the evil character in this seaside puppet show has shifted from the Devil to unpopular public figures including Adolf Hitler, Margaret Thatcher and Osama bin Laden, to offer contemporary villains.’
A puppet of Baroness Thatcher from the satirical television show Spitting Image is also included in the comedy exhibition at the London museum whose director is former Labour MP Tristram Hunt.
The museum said it was ‘always open to feedback’ and would review the relevant label text and update the wording if necessary.
A V&A Spokesperson said: ‘The V&A is always open to feedback from our visitors. In response to some concerns around a caption in the Punch and Judy case of our Laughing Matters display – telling the story of British satire and comedy – we will review the relevant label text and update the wording if necessary.’
Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher (pictured), is described as a ‘contemporary villain’ in a current display on British humour through the ages
This appears under a set of Victorian Punch and Judy puppets with a caption headed: ‘That’s the way to do it?’ Pictured: Judy and Baby puppets
A puppet of Baroness Thatcher from the satirical television show Spitting Image (pictured) is also included in the comedy exhibition at the London museum whose director is former Labour MP Tristram Hunt
According to 2022-2023 figures, the museum received most of its income, more than £67million, from the taxpayer via the Department of Culture.
Last night, a number of Conservative MPs called on ministers to axe the museum’s financial backing.
Sir Connor Burns, a former trade minister and Conservative MP for Bournemouth, said: ‘Whoever wrote that caption should be called out publicly for being a moron, or perhaps more usefully sent to read a Ladybird book of modern world history.
‘It is sadly symptomatic of the woke, luvvie-dom nonsense that persists in our public institutions.
‘They should be given a serious rap across the knuckles and a clarion instruction to grow up.’
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith agreed.
‘Given the fact that MPs are now regularly receiving death threats, myself included, from extremists and others, this V&A exhibition is ill-thought and mendacious,’ he said.
‘They must live in a bubble, away from the real world, to think that it is rational to propose that a politician of the stature of Margaret Thatcher would equate to any of those mass murderers and vile human beings.
‘This sort of idiocy begs the question about funding. It would be a good idea if those who thought of this did a hard day’s work in among the rest of us, rather than sitting on their lofty perch producing stupid ideas.’
Nile Gardiner, a former aide to Baroness Thatcher and director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, also commented.
According to 2022-2023 figures, the museum received most of its income, more than £67million, from the taxpayer via the Department of Culture. Pictured: Adolf Hitler
Last night the V&A was branded ‘disgraceful’ and ‘moronic’ amid calls for ministers to axe its financial backing. Pictured: Osama Bin Laden
‘Disgraceful from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It should be stripped of public funding,’ he wrote on X.
Political commentator and businessman Russell Quirk told GB News: ‘Thatcher was the mother of entrepreneurship. How anyone can say she was a villain – she was one of political history’s heroes.
‘She stood up against the militant unions to make sure they didn’t destroy the economy and social fabric of Britain. She should be applauded rather than labelled a villain. She gave ordinary people access to wealth, aspiration and success, and for that she should be heralded a hero.’
It is not the first time the museum’s treatment of Baroness Thatcher, who died in 2013, has provoked controversy.
In 2015 the V&A was widely criticised for refusing to accept a selection of her suits and handbags.
Her family offered hundreds of items, from her wedding dress to her red prime ministerial dispatch box, because they wanted them kept together on public display rather than auctioned off and scattered across the world.
But, according to reports, the museum ‘politely declined’, saying it collected only items of ‘outstanding aesthetic or technical quality’ rather than those with ‘intrinsic social historical value’.
It is not the first time the museum’s treatment of Baroness Thatcher, who died in 2013, has provoked controversy. Pictured: Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum Tristram Hunt
In 2015 the V&A was widely criticised for refusing to accept a selection of her suits and handbags. Pictured: The Victoria and Albert Museum
Bosses later claimed no formal offer had been made. A year on, the V&A did put on an exhibition of some of the former Conservative prime minister’s clothes, including the distinctive royal blue suit she wore as she voted in the 1987 general election.
At the time Claire Wilcox, senior curator of fashion, said this constituted ‘a record of the working wardrobe of one of the most influential and powerful women of the 20th century’.
The V&A is the world’s largest museum of decorative art and design with more than two million objects.
It was contacted yesterday but no-one was available for comment.