BARONESS Thatcher defied doctor's orders to back the campaign launch of Eastleigh's prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate Conor Burns.

Lady Thatcher and her husband, Sir Denis, were special guests at a blue riband dinner staged by the Eastleigh Conservative Association at Hedge End's Botleigh Grange Hotel.

And despite medical advice that she should shun public speaking, the Iron Lady issued a stirring rallying call to the Tory faithful in a six-minute pre-dinner speech.

Admitting that the Tory fortunes had dipped in recent years, she said the party had much to be proud of and should not lose itself in gloom.

She said: "Tonight I want to look forward - and I have two messages. First, there is much to oppose in Labour's Britain and we should make no bones in opposing it. There is nothing irresponsible about that.

"Our whole political system requires the clash of opinions and the cut and thrust of debate. That is the only way in which unsound and ill-thought out schemes are exposed.

"My second message is: never talk down the party system, and within that system never underrate the potential of the Conservative Party. Conservatism has different shades but just one colour: blue.

"Conservative principles have to be adapted, but they should not be forgotten. Faith in our vision and our mission is, in the end, more important than any number of schemes and dreams when we seek to tread the path back to power.

"And back we will be when the nation as a whole sees through New Labour's hokum."

Lady Thatcher said Britain today under New Labour seemed more and more to resemble Britain under Old Labour.

The Chancellor's forecasts were discredited, the economy groaned under Labour's strategy of tax and spend, business was burdened with more and more regulations, public services were failing those who needed them most and trade union militancy was at a level not seen for 20 years.

Dismissing the Liberal Democrats as reminding her of a fairground stall - "all fudge and candyfloss, humbugs by the dozen and large numbers of roasted nuts" - Lady Thatcher said the Conservatives' opportunities were "manifold" as New Labour's projects floundered.

Guest speaker Lord Tebbit savaged the Labour government's record on issues ranging from the firemen's strike and Northern Ireland to education, the armed forces, crime and the economy.

But he said to oust Labour would require a "bit of self discipline" from the Conservative Party which, for the past 12 years, had been a party with some "very grave faults" and one which had fallen into internal warfare.

He urged Tories to back their leader Iain Duncan Smith adding: "We are going to have to swing in as a united party or we will be a defeated party."