She had "taken a country that was on its knees and made it stand tall again".
英国史上初めての女性の首相として11年間も政権を担い，その強硬な政治姿勢から「鉄の女」と呼ばれたサッチャー元首相が死去しました。標記はキャメロン首相の声明の一部です。「イギリス病」と呼ばれた経済不況にあえいでいた当時の英国（on its knees）に強烈なリーダーシップのもと次々と施策を講じ，立て直しに尽力した（stand tall），ぶれない「強い政治家」がまたひとりこの世を去りました。
彼女が首相の座を退いたあと，2001年に東京のフォーシーズンズホテルで講演した折，まさに目の前でその独特のオーラにふれることができました。まさにiron womanだと思いました。（UG）
Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died "peacefully" at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London.
After cancelling planned talks in Paris with French President Francois Hollande and returning to the UK, Mr Cameron made a statement outside No 10 in which he described Lady Thatcher as "the patriot prime minister" and said she had "taken a country that was on its knees and made it stand tall again".
"Margaret Thatcher loved this country and served it with all she had. For that she has her well-earned place in history - and the enduring respect and gratitude of the British people," he said.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Lady Thatcher - whose husband Denis died in 2003 - had been a controversial politician who inspired "passion" among her critics and supporters.
Her government privatised several state-owned industries and was involved in a year-long stand-off with unions during the Miners' Strike of 1984-5. She was also in power when the UK fought a war following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Lady Thatcher survived an assassination attempt in 1984, when the IRA bombed the Brighton Grand Hotel, where she was staying for the Conservative Party's annual conference.
During her later years in office she became increasingly associated with Euroscepticism. She is also seen as one of the key movers behind the fall of communism in eastern Europe.
She stood down in 1990 after she failed to beat Michael Heseltine by enough votes to prevent his leadership challenge going into a second round.
World leaders and senior UK figures have been paying tribute to Lady Thatcher.
US President Barack Obama said the world had "lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty" and that "America has lost a true friend".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "never forget her part in surmounting the division of Europe and at the end of the Cold War".
Ahead of his return to the UK, Mr Cameron told the BBC: "Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds. The real thing is she didn't just lead our country; she saved our country.
"I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."
Lady Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts, the daughter of a shopkeeper and Conservative councillor in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1925.
She studied chemistry at Oxford University and worked for a plastics company before marrying businessman Denis Thatcher in 1951.
She gave birth to twins Mark and Carol in 1953, the year she also qualified as a barrister, and served as MP for Finchley, north London, from 1959 to 1992.
Having been education secretary, she successfully challenged former prime minister Edward Heath for her party's leadership in 1975 and won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.
