Lady Thatcher visits new Tory HQ

Lady Thatcher said it was an honour to be placed alongside Churchill

Baroness Thatcher urged Conservatives to "hold firm" to their beliefs, on her first visit to the party's new offices.

The ex-prime minister unveiled a bust of herself in the reception area of Conservative Central Office in London - opposite one of Winston Churchill.

Lady Thatcher, 82, said it was a "very great honour" to be placed near the wartime prime minister.

Tory leader David Cameron, who was also at the event, said Lady Thatcher was "a humbling act to follow".

He told Lady Thatcher: "We are all thrilled to have you here in our new offices and to see you looking so well."

It is the latest in a series of public appearances by Baroness Thatcher, who was at an awards ceremony alongside Mr Cameron in January and last week was at London's Royal Hospital Chelsea, for retired servicemen, to name the new infirmary.

But it was her first visit to the offices at 30 Millbank, Westminster, since the Conservatives set up there last year.

The party's former 32 Smith Square offices, home during Lady Thatcher's three election victories in the 1970s and 1980s, were sold off last year.

Lady Thatcher told Conservatives at the event that Winston Churchill "reminds us of the enduring values of our party" and said the party was always at its most successful when it "held firm to its beliefs".

"My message to you tonight is to have faith in all that we stand for and to go forward with confidence."