King's College London

Margaret Thatcher's declaration that “There is no such thing as society” today receives support from just 11% of the UK public, according to a new study published on the anniversary of the 1987 interview in which she made the statement.

But agreement with her comments rises far higher – to around half the population (49%) – when people see the full quote in which they appear, which includes extra context about individual responsibility, an over-reliance on government, and community obligations.

The research, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, tests how context shapes public reaction to four influential political statements through a nationally representative survey of 2,050 UK adults, where half were shown the shorter, more widely known quotes and the other half were shown longer versions, with the full context in which they were said.

Margaret Thatcher: “There is no such thing as society”

This famous statement, expressed in an interview Thatcher gave to Woman’s Own magazine in September 1987, enjoys much higher support from the public when presented in broader context, with opinions also varying significantly by political affiliation between the long and short excerpts of her quote.

Labour supporters (15%) are actually slightly more likely than Conservatives (7%) to agree with the short version of the quote – but this is reversed with the longer version, where 65% of Conservatives agree with it compared to 49% of Labour supporters. Among Reform UK supporters, 14% support the shorter version, while 63% support the fuller excerpt.

The public today are less likely to agree with either version of Thatcher’s quote than they were back in 2013, when this question was last asked by Ipsos – with the biggest decline in agreement with the longer excerpt, where agreement has declined from 63% to 49%. But for the two versions of the quote, both agreement and disagreement have fallen, as more people now take a neutral position.

Which specific elements of Thatcher’s full quote do people support?

The full quote from Thatcher is very long, and people may agree with some elements and not others, so we broke it down to test views on individual sentiments. Among those who agree with Thatcher's fuller quote, sentiments about people relying too much on the government (58%) and having a sense of entitlement (56%) are most popular.

But this group aren’t wholly disapproving of those receiving government help: far fewer (31%) agree that people facing challenges like homelessness and who want housing support are “casting their problems on society”.

Meanwhile, only 15% endorse the idea that, instead of there being such a thing as society, “there are individual men and women, and there are families.”

Sir Keir Starmer: “We risk becoming an island of strangers”

59% of the public agree with Sir Keir Starmer’s comment that “We risk becoming an island of strangers” – but this actually declines slightly, to 54%, if people are shown a fuller excerpt of his remarks, where he discusses the importance of fair rules and the “obligations we owe to one another…in a diverse nation like ours”.

76% of Reform UK supporters agree we risk becoming an island of strangers, compared with 60% of Conservatives and 51% of Labour supporters. But when the full context of Starmer’s quote is included, this difference disappears, with Conservative (66%), Reform UK (62%) and Labour supporters all at a similar level (62%).

Peter Mandelson: “We should be intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”

As Trade and Industry Secretary in 1998, Peter Mandelson’s was widely quoted as saying: “We should be intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”. 16% of the public agree with this view today – but this more than doubles, to 39%, when Mandelson’s frequently omitted caveat – “as long as they pay their taxes” – is included.

There is little difference in agreement with the short version of this quote among Conservative (24%), Labour (22%) or Reform UK (21%) supporters. But when it comes to the longer, more qualified version, Labour supporters are notably less likely to support this view: 37% agree with it, compared with 58% of Reform UK supporters and 56% of Conservatives.

Michael Gove: “The people in this country have had enough of experts”

42% of people agree with Michael Gove’s comment, made during the EU referendum campaign, that the country had “had enough of experts”. But support is slightly higher among those presented with his full quote, which specified “experts from organisations with acronyms, like the IMF”, with 47% agreeing.

Reform UK supporters (62%) are far more likely than Labour (39%) and Conservative (38%) supporters to agree with the shorter version of Gove’s quote – but the difference shrinks somewhat when the full quote is presented, with agreement rising among Conservatives in particular, to 56%.

Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said:

“Every so often, a politician delivers a line that captures public attention – though not always in the way they would have hoped. Sir Keir Starmer said he deeply regrets his ‘island of strangers’ line, and Peter Mandelson said he wouldn’t repeat the view that he was relaxed about the filthy rich. Michael Gove said he wasn’t ‘too het up’ about the reaction to his ‘had enough of experts’ line, but that he’d been cut-off before he could get across his full sentiment – and Margaret Thatcher was so annoyed that her ‘no such thing as society’ quote was separated from her fuller statement that No. 10 later issued a clarification to the Sunday Times.

“The public have very different views about each statement, and sometimes the context helps – but not always. From all the statements, it’s Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ remark that gets the most support, from around six in 10, with slightly lower support for the fuller extract from his speech than the bald statement. The short version appeals much more to Reform UK supporters than Labour supporters.

“The next most popular is Michael Gove’s ‘had enough of experts’ line, which around four in 10 agree with, and only gets a minor bump when we add the context on ‘organisations with acronyms, like the IMF’, which he said was his original intention.

“There is a much bigger impact from adding Mandelson’s qualifier ‘as long as they pay their taxes’ to his ‘intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich’ quote – very few agree with the short statement, but four in 10 agree with the longer one, with a particular boost among Conservative and Reform supporters.

“But it is Thatcher’s quote where the context matters most: only 11% agree that there is no such thing as society, but half of people agree with her longer statement. Of course, there is a lot in her long statement, and even if she claimed that what she was trying to say was clear, there are very different views on individual elements of her thoughts: people are much more likely to believe that others think it’s the government’s job to sort out their problems than to agree that the homeless are ‘casting their problems on society’.”

Survey details

Fieldwork for this study was carried out with Opinium, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,050 UK adults aged 18+ between 3 and 5 September 2025.

For the question on Thatcher’s quote, results were compared with those from a nationally representative Ipsos MORI survey of 1,010 GB adults aged 18+, conducted between 13 and 15 April 2013.

Using a split-sample methodology, half of respondents saw the abbreviated versions while the other half saw the fuller quotes, allowing for direct comparison of how context influences public reaction.