 Patel has cited Thatcher as her political hero, and has described herself as a "massive Thatcherite" ("I apologise to no one for that"), with various news sources characterising her as a Thatcherite, and while profiling Patel for "The Independent", Tom Peck wrote that she "could scarcely be more of a Thatcherite".She has also previously served as a vice-chair of Conservative Friends of Israel.She has taken robust stances on crime, garnering media attention after she argued for the restoration of capital punishment on the BBC's "Question Time" in September 2011, although in 2016 she stated that she no longer held this view.