Chiefs to honour Margaret Thatcher with minute's silence

Exeter Rugby Club chairman and chief executive Tony Rowe OBE has today confirmed the club will be paying its respect to the memory of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, ahead of this weekend’s home encounter with London Irish.

A minute of silence will be observed before the Aviva Premiership match between the Chiefs and Irish on Saturday, April 13 (3pm).

Meanwhile Foreign Secretary William Hague has defended the decision to recall parliament from its Easter recess and said it was right for the state to fund most of the costs of Thatcher's funeral. The Thatcher Foundation will be making a contribution.

The foreign secretary told the BBC: "When it comes to money, the rebate she negotiated for this country from the EU has brought us so far £75bn, which is twice the size of our annual defence budget. I think that puts money in perspective … So I think we can afford to contribute to a funeral."

Hague also said that leftwing critics of Thatcher resented her success. "They claimed to stand for millions of people but they could never get as many votes as Mrs Thatcher in an election," he said.

However, a former minister in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's government is to boycott the special sitting.

John Healey wrote on the Politics Home website: "Parliament is being used today for narrow political gain by the prime minister, as a platform for his party's ideology, not just eulogy … He's wrong to recall parliament, and wrong to hijack it in this way. I will play no part and I will stay away, with other things to do at home in the constituency."