David Cameron hailed Margaret Thatcher as ‘the patriot Prime Minister’ with a ‘lionhearted love for this country’ last night as he led tributes to the woman hailed as Britain’s greatest peacetime leader. Mr Cameron, speaking on the steps of 10 Downing Street said the country had lost a ‘great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton’. Old colleagues and former foes alike united to acknowledge her position as the most towering political figure since Sir Winston Churchill, a pioneer as the first women prime minister and an international champion of free market economics. Full of praise: Prime Minister David Cameron makes a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central London yesterday, after Baroness Thatcher died at the age of 87 following a stroke
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David Cameron: 'We have lost a great leader, great PM and great Briton'
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Tony Blair: 'She was kind and was always immensely supportive to me'
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Ed Miliband: 'A unique figure who reshaped the politics of a generation'
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Boris Johnson: 'She ended defeatism and pessimism of post-war period'
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Lord Tebbit: 'Her life must have been increasingly empty in recent years'
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Lord Saatchi: 'She is immortal because her values are timeless, eternal'
Margaret Thatcher took a country that was on its knees and made @placeholder stand tall again.’