P.M. at hotel’s reopening

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 11

P.M. at hotel’s reopening

NZPA-Reuter London The British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, attended the reopening of the Grand Hotel in Brighton yesterday, 22 months after she and members of her Cabinet escaped with their lives when a bomb planted by Irish guerrillas ripped out the upper floors.

Mrs Thatcher arrived with the Conservative Party’s chairman, Mr Norman Tebbit, who was rescued with his wife by firemen from beneath tonnes of debris on the

night of the bombing. Five people were killed and 33 injured in the blast. The explosion tore a huge hole in the seafront hotel early on October 12, 1984. The hotel was packed with almost the entire Thatcher Government, who were in the south coast resort to attend the annual Conservative Party conference. Yesterday was the first time that either Mrs Thatcher or Mr Tebbit had been back to the hotel, which has undergone an £ll million ($33.2 . million) face-lift. Mrs

Thatcher had originally refused an invitation to attend the function, saying that she was unavailable. In a symbolic gesture, she returned to the hotel’s owners the British flag that was flying on the hotel mast when the bomb went off. It was handed to the Prime Minister after the explosion for safekeeping. In June, Patrick Magee — a long-serving member of the Irish Republican Army — was given eight life sentences after being found guilty of the murder of five people in the explosion.