This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/6993269.stm
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Brown welcomes Thatcher to No 10 | |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Former Conservative prime minister Baroness Thatcher is in 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Gordon Brown. | Former Conservative prime minister Baroness Thatcher is in 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Gordon Brown. |
| Lady Thatcher, 81, was greeted with a warm handshake from the prime minister as she arrived outside Number 10. | |
| Mr Brown recently surprised some Labour MPs by praising Lady Thatcher as a "conviction politician" who "saw the need for change". | Mr Brown recently surprised some Labour MPs by praising Lady Thatcher as a "conviction politician" who "saw the need for change". |
| Mr Brown's wife Sarah is also thought to be at the meeting with Lady Thatcher, who was PM from 1979 to 1990. | |
| The visit follows an exchange of letters between Mr Brown and Lady Thatcher shortly after he became prime minister in June. | |
| A formal one-to-one meeting was being held in the formal study - the Thatcher Room - followed by a tour of the building where prime ministers live as well as work when in power. | |
| Shortly after Mr Brown's predecessor Tony Blair took power in 1997, he also extended an invitation to Baroness Thatcher. | |
| The visit comes on a day that it emerged that the advertising agency credited with helping secure the 1979 election victory for the then Mrs Thatcher - Saatchi and Saatchi - has been given the Labour general election advertising account. | |
| Mr Brown has recently been accused of "deeply cynical manoeuvring" by Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind - over his invitations to Tory and Lib Dem MPs to become advisers on certain issues. |