Lord Healey: The meeting was a bad decision

Thatcher was a disaster...

Mixed Reactions To The Secret Meeting

Former Labour Chancellor, Lord Healey, criticised Mr Blair's decision to hold discussions with Lady Thatcher. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said, "I see no point really, except publicity, because she was a disaster. She destroyed British influence in Europe...She had worse relations with the Germans than any prime minister in living memory since the war."

Asked why he believed Mr Blair had done it, Lord Healey said: "I think, basically, to show he is open-minded and, secondly, I think because perhaps he thought it might reassure the Euro-sceptics in the Labour Party that he wasn't going to be a push-over, but I think it was a bad choice."

However Lord Parkinson, former Conservative Party chairman, speaking on GMTV said too much should not be read into the meeting.

Lord Parkinson: has respect for Tony Blair

Lady Thatcher is patriotic...

"She is above all a patriotic British person and she wants the country to be in strong hands, she'd prefer it to be in conservative hands...I think one has to have respect for the job Tony Blair has done in the Labour party and I can tell you any politician has respect for a politician who can get a 173 majority over all the other political parties" he said.

Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said he was very concerned at the meeting, especially about the implications for Scotland. "New Labour are the inheritors of the Thatcherite tradition, and it is highly revealing that Lady Thatcher should be the first former Prime Minister to visit Tony Blair in Downing Street...We did not want Lady Thatcher to be our Prime minister then, and we do not want her as an adviser to her protege Prime Minister now. Both at home and in Europe, Margaret Thatcher's policies were hostile to the Scottish interest, and Blair can only be offering more of the same by acting on her advice."

Lord Callaghan: former Premier

Meetings "common practice"

Former premier Lord Callaghan said that meetings between past and present Prime Ministers were not unknown. Lord Callaghan met John Major after he came to power in November, 1990, before Mr Major was due to attend a heads of government meeting in Rome.

Lord Callaghan, Prime Minister between 1976 and 1979, said, "These courtesies aren't unknown when a new Prime Minister takes office. Mr Major and I had a number of substantial conversations that went on for a long time and I told him what I could about the people I knew and about a range of international issues."

Gerald Howarth: former parliamentary private secretary to Thatcher

"Three cheers"

He described Mr Blair's talks as "eminently sensible" but did not know if other former Prime Ministers would also be called in. Lord Callaghan said the practice was common in the United States, where President Clinton had meetings with former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Gerald Howarth, Tory MP for Aldershot and a former parliamentary private secretary to Lady Thatcher fully supported the meeting and said it indicated a level of "democratic maturity"

"If the Prime Minister has decided to take advantage of the experience and advice available from Lady Thatcher, all I can say to that is three cheers" he said.

Labour MP for Cardiff West, Rhodri Morgan, for said Mr Blair's meeting with Lady Thatcher would send a tough message to Europe. The meeting would be reported to all the European heads of state, and was meant to pass on the message that they should not expect Mr Blair to be a pushover, he said.