£100,000 raised in 24 hours in bid to save Margaret Thatcher's clothes and possessions for the natio

More than £100,000 in cash has been raised in just 24 hours by members of the public to save Margaret Thatcher’s clothes and personal possessions for the nation.

Tens of thousands of pounds more has been pledged to the Thatcher Centre, which will bid for all or part of Baroness Thatcher's collection and display it at the University of Buckingham.

The Victoria & Albert Museum was heavily criticised this week for refusing an informal offer to accept the clothes and some of her personal effects including dresses, handbags and jewellery.

That came despite the V&A accepting an earlier donation of 1,000 clothes – including sportswear and accessories - from Jill Ritblat, the wife of a property developer, and exhibiting some of them.

The centre now has a chance of making on an offer to the executors of Margaret Thatcher's estate and stopping the auction of 300 items - ranging from her wedding dress to her ministerial red box and handbags - going ahead at Christie's auction house in London next month.

Donal Blaney, the centre's chief executive who started the "crowd sourced" fund raising on Monday, said the donations ranged in size from £10 to £50,000.

Mr Blaney said: "The Margaret Thatcher Centre is going to be based at the University of Buckingham and the plan is the items that we manage to save for the nation will be on permanent display at the centre.

"I am delighted by people's generosity but not surprised that they wanted them saved for the nation.

"Bluntly what is the point in these dresses being sold to a rich woman in San Francisco or Abu Dhabi when she has them hanging next to one that was owned Jackie Onassis and one that was owned by Liz Taylor that only her friends can see?"

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Anthony Seldon, Buckingham University's vice chancellor, said the Thatcher Centre would be funded by donors in America and Britain.

He said: "She was the most extraordinary Prime Minister and figure of towering historical importance. I am very proud to have the centre at Buckingham."

The Museum of Grantham said it will display Baroness Thatcher’s personal possessions while the Design Museum in London could mount a temporary show.

Nicholas Coleridge, the V&A’s chairman, and Martin Roth, its director, were said by sources to be "actively working on a solution" with Mark and Carol Thatcher, Lady Thatcher’s surviving children on Wednesday.

Christie's is planning to sell the 300-strong collection to raise £500,000 at an auction over two days in London next month.

Ministers are also powerless to stop the items going overseas if the items are sold off piecemeal.

This is because unless each individual Thatcher item is over 50 years old and worth more than a specified minimum value each, the Government cannot intervene to save them for the nation.

An item of clothing, for example, must be worth more than £12,000 before a new buyer must apply for an export licence, and a portrait more than £10,000.

The majority of items offered for sale at auction have estimates under the relevant thresholds.

Sources said it may be possible for ministers to make an argument to save the items if it could be proved that they had unique cultural and historical merit.

Sir Gerald Howarth MP, a former defence minister and Parliamentary aide to Lady Thatcher, said: "This is an opportunity to keep the collection together before it is dissipated to a range of would be buyers around the world.

"Margaret Thatcher’s wardrobe was an integral part of her. She was the best dressed female politician.

"I was her Parliamentary Private Secretary and drove with her in the car. She was impeccably turned out. Her dressing was a massive part of her image, it certainly projected her power. It was power dressing."

The V&A made clear on Tuesday evening that if the collection had been offered today the museum might well have accepted them.

One Whitehall source said: "They are not just doing this to save face – Nicholas Coleridge and Martin Roth are intelligent men.

"They are saying ‘if this had come to us we would have taken a different view’."

Senior Conservatives said they be keen to help save the 300 items from Lady Thatcher’s political and personal life, from her red Prime Ministerial dispatch box to her wedding dress, if her family agreed.

John Whittingdale, the Culture secretary and a former Parliamentary aide to Lady Thatcher, told The Daily Telegraph that he would arrange for them to be put on display in a "national institution".

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