Howard pays tribute to Thatcher

Tory leader Michael Howard led tributes to Baroness Thatcher on the 25th anniversary of her first day in 10 Downing Street last night.

He hailed her as our greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill and said her 'political will and iron courage' reversed Britain's decline.

Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street on May 4, 1979, as Britain's first and only female premier, after the Tories swept Labour out of office.

At a dinner in her honour at the Savoy, Mr Howard, who served under her as an environment minister, said: 'What Churchill did in May 1940 was the supreme example of how one man's political will, iron courage and leadership can save a nation.

'In May 1979 Britain faced a very different threat - the threat of terminal decline.

'Most people felt our decline was inevitable and that it was the job of politicians simply to manage it. One woman thought differently.

'She believed in the British people and in what we could achieve. She didn't see her job as managing Britain's decline - she wanted to reverse it. And that is exactly what she did. We all owe her a huge debt.'

Among 500 guests at the £95 a head dinner were members of the shadow cabinet, two former leaders, Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague, and veterans of Thatcher administrations including Lord Tebbit.

On Saturday, Lady Thatcher will attend a reception in her honour organised by Young Conservatives and Conservative Students at a London venue still to be announced.

Today four of her principal lieutenants will pay homage to her legacy at a reception at the Oxford and Cambridge Club, hosted by the Adam Smith Institute.

Lord Saatchi, whose advertising agency helped to get her to power, will be present along with two former Tory chairmen, Lord Tebbit and Lord Parkinson, as well as Lord Powell, who was her foreign policy adviser in Downing Street.

Lady Thatcher is not expected to attend the event. Friends say she is slowly coming to terms with the death of her husband, Sir Denis, last year and that her health has been improving. She is still under doctors' orders to make no public speeches.

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