LONDON, March 8: Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher left hospital with a cheery wave for photographers on Saturday after undergoing tests overnight.

Baroness Thatcher, 82, spent the night at St Thomas’ Hospital in London after falling ill while dining with friends.

“She’s very comfortable and she had a comfortable night. She’s feeling a lot better, much revived,” said Mark Worthington, Thatcher’s private secretary, outside the hospital.

He said the former leader of the Conservative Party who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990 was dining at the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament, when she started feeling “slightly nauseous and faint”.

“Her legs gave way a little bit under her,” he said, although he denied she had collapsed.

“We thought it safest to be sure about these things,” he said.

Television images showed Thatcher, wearing a deep red dress, walking to her chauffeur-driven car outside the hospital and greeting the waiting photographers, before being driven to her home in the capital.

Britain’s first female prime minister, nicknamed “the Iron Lady” for her uncompromising style, appears increasingly rarely in public since doctors banned her from addressing large audiences in 2002 for health reasons.

She has suffered a series of minor strokes which friends say have affected her short-term memory, leading her to occasionally lose track mid-conversation.

Thatcher’s daughter, Carol Thatcher, said her mother had been taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.

“They decided to err on the side of caution,” she said.—AFP