Tributes have been paid by politicians and personalities in the West County to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who has died aged 87 after suffering from a stroke.

Christine Hamilton, wife of the former Tory MP Neil who served as Minister for Corporate Affairs for Mrs Thatcher between 1992-1994, remembers working closely with the Iron Lady on campaign trails over the years.

Mrs Hamilton, the media personality and self-styled British Battleaxe who lives with her husband at Hullavington, said: “She was not only a great prime minister but a good friend to Neil and me so we feel her loss on both counts.

“We had some highly rememberable times with her privately and got to run campaigns with her in the 70s and 80s.

“I am incredibly proud that Neil played a part in the Thatcher revolution and have very many happy memories.

“She was a truly amazing woman – she was the great British battleaxe of the century, and a wonderful lady."

Conservative MP for North Wiltshire James Gray worked for a short time as her special adviser and said it was she who inspired him to get into politics.


He said: “I owe my entry to politics to her, she inspired me in the 1970s.
 

“The nation owes her a great debt. She made an enormous mark on Britain, which was the sick man of Europe at the time. Britain was bankrupt and she turned it around to the benefit of all.


“Many people are in their houses thanks to her. The Falklands remained Britain thanks to her.

"There are a lot of freedoms and prosperities we enjoy thanks to the bold, brave and tough things she did. Though controversial, she was nevertheless a truly great leader.”

Leader of Wiltshire Council, Jane Scott, said: “Today is a very sad day and the end of an era. Margaret Thatcher was a great inspiration and has changed the perception of women in politics and what they can achieve.”

And deputy leader John Thomson said: “It’s history now, the world has moved on. She was probably right for her time, but the world has changed a lot since those days.

“Her legacy is we still have the Falkland Islands, and she did enable a huge amount of people to become property owners.


“She may not necessarily have got it right on her industrial base, moving us more towards a service economy, but we are working now to correct that. She changed the laws with unions, and handed more power back to individuals rather than the union barons.


“I think she was rather like Marmite: you either loved her or hated her, but you can’t help but admire her strength of conviction. She was a politician who you really knew what she thought and what she believed in, even though you may not agree with it.


“You may not have liked what she was saying, but at least you knew what she was thinking. We don’t have that clarity in our politicians at the moment.


“Of course my condolences go out to the family.”

 

Sir Richard Needham, former director of Dyson and Conservative MP for North Wiltshire from 1979 to 1997, was Minister for Northern Ireland for five years under Mrs Thatcher’s leadership.


He said: “She was clearly the greatest peace time prime minister of the last century.

"She radically transformed Britain, firstly by reforming the trade union movement, secondly by selling council houses to tenants which gave millions of people the opportunity for the first time to buy their own houses, and thirdly by privatising so many of the great nationalised industries, which gave millions of people the opportunity to own shares for the first time in their lives.

"And what she did in privatisation was copied by almost all of the emerging and advanced economies in the world.

“She revolutionised much of British life and had this extraordinary strength of character to stand up to opponents and achieve change.”


He said he greatly admired her, despite not always agreeing with her policies.


“I wasn’t on the same wing of the Conservative party as she was, but nevertheless she gave me a ministerial job, which I’d always wanted,” he said.

“I didn’t always agree with her, particularly with social policy, but I had an enormous admiration and respect for her. She was a very great woman.”