Baroness Thatcher was a prime minister who made Britain great again, David Cameron has told MPs.
Speaking as Parliament was recalled so that MPs and peers could pay tribute to the former Tory prime minister who died on Monday, Mr Cameron told the Commons that Lady Thatcher was an "extraordinary woman".
- Click here for more on Margaret Thatcher's death
- Margaret Thatcher: Her Life and Times
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She rescued Britain from post-war decline, he said, telling MPs that her policies, controversial at the time she was in government, were now accepted by politicians of all colours.
Mr Cameron said: "They say 'cometh the hour, cometh the man', well in 1979 came the hour and came the lady.
"She made the political weather, she made history, and - let this be her epitaph - she made our country great again."
Meanwhile, Ed Miliband described the former PM as a "unique and towering figure" whatever views are held of her.
Mr Miliband paid warm tributes to the former prime minister, who died on Monday, highlighting a series of policy areas where "she was right".
Speaking in front of busy - though not packed - Labour benches, he highlighted the Falkland Islands and parts of the privatisation programme as successes.
But he also said it was important to reflect where she had been wrong - picking out mining and Baroness Thatcher's position on Nelson Mandela and South Africa.
Mr Miliband told the Commons: "Whatever your view of her, Margaret Thatcher was a unique and towering figure. I disagreed with much of what she did but I respect what her death means for many, many people who admired her and I honour her personal achievements."
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