Leicestershire MPs to attend Lady Thatcher's funeral

At least three Leicestershire MPs will be among the guests at Lady Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday. Rutland and Melton MP Alan Duncan, who was a friend of the former Prime Minister, will be going with his civil partner, James Dunseath. The MP, who had Lady Thatcher as a guest at his 50th birthday party six years ago, will be among 2,000 guests at the funeral in St Paul's Cathedral. He said: "It will be a sad but magnificent occasion and a fitting tribute to a Prime Minister of remarkable courage and conviction. "Everything she did was for the good of Britain. Some people didn't like it but she was clearing up the previous government's mess. "Britain was going down the tube and she rescued the country." Labour MP Keith Vaz, who represents Leicester East, will also be attending the funeral. He said: "I'm going to pay my respects to the first Prime Minister I saw in the House of Commons and the first Prime Minister I ever questioned on behalf of the people of Leicester. "I asked her if her shoes were made in Leicester. She replied that she always bought British and her shoes came from Marks and Spencer. "We later found out that most ladies' shoes at Marks & Spencer actually came from Italy. "But she was always extremely nice to backbenchers in the commons when they asked questions. "The funeral will certainly be a big occasion." Andrew Robathan, Conservative MP for South Leicestershire, said he had successfully applied for a seat at the funeral. He said: "It will be a sombre and memorable event. "Lady Thatcher left the House of Commons the year I arrived but she was the Prime Minister for much of my life and I did meet her during lunches in London and on a visit she made to Leicestershire. "She was inspirational and she turned this country around. "We were in a terminal decline and people on the other side of the Atlantic were saying 'Goodbye, Britain, you're finished', until she changed things. "She stood up to a tin-pot dictator in Argentina in the Falklands War but also, with Ronald Reagan, stood up to the Soviet Union and brought the Cold War to an end." Other guests at the funeral will include The Queen, Barack Obama, Jeremy Clarkson, Sir Terry Wogan, Joan Collins and Sir Trevor McDonald.

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