Lady Thatcher to miss gay Tory wedding

When it was announced that Tory MP Alan Duncan was to marry his long-term partner, James Dunseath – what he called his "big fat gay wedding" – it was thought that the event would be attended by a host of Tory grandees, among them David Cameron. But despite talking of his "delight" at the news, it appears that the Tory leader will not be among the 80 or so guests at Merchant Taylor’s Hall on July 25.

Others who are allegedly not turning up are Lady Thatcher (pictured), Duncan’s hero (a giant photo of her hangs above his Westminster desk), and, perhaps less surprisingly, Lord Tebbit.

An unnamed Tory backbencher told the Daily Mail: "There was all this talk of 300 people and half the shadow cabinet on show, but it looks like it won’t be nearly so big. If Alan was hoping to extract political capital from it, he’s not going to get very much."

Happily, not all have prior engagements. The shadow minister for business can at least expect his former flatmate, shadow foreign secretary William Hague, along with his wife Ffion, to be there.