Margaret Thatcher died today after suffering a stroke. She was 87.

The former grocers daughter was Britain’s first and only female Prime Minister. Lord Bell, her spokesman said: “It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning. A further statement will be made later.”

Lady Thatcher will have a ceremonial funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral with full military honours.

Prime Minister David Cameron gave his tribute: “It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Lady Thatcher. We have lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton.”

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the defining figures in modern British politics.

“Whatever side of the political debate you stand on, no-one can deny that as prime minister she left a unique and lasting imprint on the country she served.

Conservative MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston Zac Goldsmith tweeted: “There’s a reason every aspiring leader wanted to be photographed alongside Lady T. A giant, not just of the C20 but in our country’s history.”

Tom McPhail, Head of Pensions Research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said her government was responsible for the launch of Personal Pensions in July 1988 and for the scrapping of compulsory occupational pension scheme membership, in April 1988. Her political ideology emphasising individual rights and responsibilities, rather than collectivism (“there’s no such thing as society”) can still be seen today. Pension provision may be focused through the workplace but with the end of final salary pensions and the move to money purchase arrangements, the question of what people get to live on in retirement is increasingly dependent on the decisions which they take for themselves.

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