Baroness Thatcher's death brings tributes from political friends and foes in Bradford

Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South, said although Margaret Thatcher divided the country during her 11 years in office as Britain’s first woman premier, he recognised that she had an impact on British life.

He said: “I think she had a devastating impact on working class communities. She stopped them achieving things. People were worried about jobs. We’re still paying the price for her policies.

“Her energy policy for example. She started the rot in terms of our dependency on gas and nuclear instead of freeing up the range of energy providers including coal, which is why we’re paying more for energy now.

“Her strength was she was a leader. The fact that I disgreed with most of the things she did doesn’t take away from that fact. I believe leadership is important.”

Bradford East Liberal Democrat MP David Ward recalled that Mrs Thatcher’s resignation on November 22, 1990, occurred shortly after the Conservatives came third in a Parliamentary by-election in Bradford North. He came second, losing to Labour’s Terry Rooney.

Mr Ward said: “People were turning against her in her own party. The talk on the doorstep was the division in the Tory Party and the Tory party falling apart. Geoffrey Howe had just resigned over Europe.

“When she became Prime Minister the general consensus was that something needed to change in the country. There was unhappiness about the undemocratic way the unions were dominating the country.

“She identified that and brought about a fundamental change between government and the unions. But it could have been achieved without nthe dreadful decimation of British industry.

“The current recession is very bad; but it is nothing compared with what we went through in Britain and in Bradford in the early 1980s.

“People who had never not worked had children who didn’t work and they had children who didn’t work. Bradford hasn’t really recovered and it is that that is unforgivable.”

Shipley MP Philip Davies paid tribute Baroness Thatcher describing her as his inspiration, but acknowledging she was “a Marmite politician” - either loved or loathed.

“Margaret Thatcher was my inspiration when I was younger,” said Conservative Mr Davies.

“I am convinced history will say she was the greatest peacetime prime minister this country ever had.

“She won a remarkable three general elections on the trot.

"And while it’s true Tony Blair did the same, millions fewer voted for him in his last win than in his first. But when Mrs Thatcher did it, more people voted for her the third time than the first.

“She was still building support amongst voters, and that feat will never be matched.

“Many people wish Mrs Thatcher was in charge now to tackle all the problems we face today.”

However Mr Davies recognised that view was not shared by all in Yorkshire.

“She was a Marmite politician - you either loved or hated her.

“But even those who hated her had some grudging respect for the fact she spoke her mind and stood up for what she believed in.

“Whether or not people agreed with her, they had had respect for her strength as a leader and were proud at the way she represented Britain internationally.”

Keighley Conservative MP Kris Hopkins said: “I was saddened to learn of the death of Baroness Thatcher, one of Britain’s greatest prime ministers.

“She came to power at a time when our economy was in ruin following years of Labour ineptitude, and she challenged the militant trade unions of the day.

“While she was a hugely divisive figure, Baroness Thatcher was a true leader and her qualities most memorably came to the fore during the Falklands War.

“She also played a crucial role in supporting Ronald Reagan in achieving the demise of the Warsaw Pact and an end to the Cold War.

“I know that many people in the north will forever associate Baroness Thatcher with the miners’ strike, and her legacy will stir contrasting emotions on a day like today.”

Ronnie Farley a former leader of Bradford Council’s Conservative Group, met Margaret Thatcher many times when she was Prime Minister.

He said: “Her and I never got on because I was never ‘one of us’. Bradford had the biggest Conservative group in the country – 45 or 47 councillors. We couldn’t run Bradford with Margaret Thatcher’s policies because we would have been wiped out.

“Our group was willing to go where other Conservative groups wouldn’t. We sued our own Government for £12m after they cut our rate support grant by £20m.

“We lost in the lower court, won in the High Court and lost 2-1 in the House of Lords. From then on whenever I met Mrs Thatcher she pronounced Bradford with a ‘t’ – Bratford.

“I admired what she did to become leader of the Conservative Party because that must have been tremendously hard. But her policies were never mine. She was charming but scary.”

Former Bradford business leader and Conservative MP John Watson , who knew Lady Thatcher personally, praised the former Prime Minister for injecting a spirit of enterprise back into the country and being the only modern PM to fundamentally change the way Britain was run.

Mr Watson met on a monthly basis when she became leader of the Conservative Party and he was chairman of the candidates' panel.

Mr Watson, a former president of Bradford Chamber of Commerce, who was MP for Skipton between 1979 and 1987, said he initially had reservations about Mrs Thatcher's economic policies, believing that she was 'going too far, too fast'.

"She was proved right and I was proved wrong," he said.

"Baroness Thatcher's policies ensured that we no longer suffered from 'the British disease' as a result of militant trade unionism. Through her policies Britain was able to regain its role as a trading nation competing around the world, which at the end of the 1970s we were not doing and by the end of the 1990s we were doing again," said Mr Watson, who was also chief executive of urban regeneration company, Bradford City Challenge and is a director of funding body Finance Yorkshire.

Businessman John Pennington, a Conservative member of Bradford Council, who owns the Octagon venue at Sandbeds, Keighley, said: "I admired her decisiveness anid leadership qualities, even though her policies meant that Britain had to go through much pain before the country got back on its feet. As a powerful woman I'm sure she became a role model for many`ambitious and talented women and we now see more female senior executives, which is a good thing."

John Cridland, CBI director-general, said:“Baroness Thatcher’s leadership took the UK out of the economic relegation zone and into the first division. What Baroness Thatcher did to reshape the British economy gave us a generation of growth.”

But George Galloway, Respect Party MP for Bradford West, was the most unequivocal in his appraisal of Margaret Thatcher as a negative influence on virtually every aspect of policy including the 1982 war with Argentina.

He said: “She did no good. She destroyed much of what was good about our country. She drove the mining community into perdition.

“She de-industrialised much of the country, doing more damage than the Luftwaffe did during the last world war. She had ice in her blood.”

The deputy leader of Labour-run Bradford Council Imran Hussain said: "While I have never agreed with her policies there's no question she was an enormously influential leader whose strength and years of service should be recorded."

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Dale Smith, a Conservative, said: "She was an icon who served a crucial period of time with great distinction. She focused on individual people and encouraged them to fend for themselves while not forgetting the need of others.

"She was clearly a very determined lady, fiery and passionate who in many ways was ahead of her time - as a woman in leadership of the highest level."

The flags at Bradford City Hall will be set at half-mast on the day of Baroness Thatcher's funeral at St Paul's Cathedral, following set protocol of the UK's Flags and Heraldry Committee.