Margaret Thatcher praises Tony Blair over his 9/11 stance

Margaret Thatcher heaped lavish praise on Tony Blair for his response after 9/11 as her fellow Tories warned that Britain faced its own imminent terror attack.

The former Tory Premier wrote privately to the then Labour PM to applaud his support for the US after the Twin Towers attacks and other atrocities in September 2001 which killed almost 3,000 people.

Her letter in declassified files at the National Archives said: “I greatly admire the resolve you are showing.

“You have ensured that Britain is known as a staunch defender of liberty and as a loyal ally of America. That is the very best reputation our country can have.”

The Iron Lady, who left 10 Downing Street after 11 years in 1990 and was by that time Baroness Thatcher, signed off: “With all good wishes, Margaret T.”

The files also reveal how former Tory defence minister Sir John Stanley wrote privately to Mr Blair days after terrorists crashed jets into the New York skyscrapers.

He warned that Britain had to prepare for an imminent attack on a major city, using weapons of mass destruction.

Sir John said that security, defence and intelligence planning should assume a “terrorist WMD attack on one or more of the centres of population…in the near and foreseeable future”.

He continued: “The vulnerability of British people, particularly those living in urban areas, to terrorist attack is, I suspect, all too great.”

In response, Mr Blair said, while he shared his concerns and had ordered a security review, the greatest threat remained a conventional attack.

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