Cameron to lead Commons tributes to Baroness Thatcher as Labour MPs accuse him of 'hijacking' her death for political gain MPs and peers return to Westminster as Parliament is recalled Up to 7 hours set aside for debate but some Labour MPs will boycott Ex-Labour minister John Healey attacks coal mine closures and claims Cameron is using death to boost his own popularity MPs will able to claim up to £3,750 each to return to Westminster David Cameron will today lead tributes to Baroness Thatcher as Parliament is recalled to remember the former Prime Minister. MPs and peers are returning from their Easter break with up to seven set aside for debate, including speeches by party leaders and former members of the Thatcher government. But former Labour minister John Healey sparked fury today after accusing Mr Cameron of "hijacking" Baroness Thatcher's death and the recall of Parliament for political gain. Prime Minister David Cameron will lead Commons tributes to Baroness Thatcher when Parliament is recalled today MPs and peers will return from their Easter recess for several hours of debate on Baroness Thatcher's legacy as one of Britain's most influential politicians Mr Cameron is expected to hail Baroness Thatcher as an "inspiration" and will revisit his belief that she "saved our country" that he set out in a statement shortly after it was announced on Monday that she had died of a stroke at the age of 87. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband will also speak from the Dispatch Box on behalf of their parties. Mr Miliband has urged his MPs to respond to Baroness Thatcher's death in a respectful way, but he risks being defied by left-wing MPs determined to use today's tributes to attack her legacy as 11 years in Number 10. Friends of Baroness Thatcher challenged her political critics threatening to boycott Parliament to have the courage of their convictions and debate her achievements in the Commons today. MPs are allowed to claim up to £3,750 in expenses if they want to pay tribute to Baroness Thatcher in Parliament today. The money can be used by an MP to bring back their whole family early from a holiday overseas. Or they can claim to return to Westminster and then jet back to their holiday resort. The decision was announced in an email to all 650 MPs from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. Peers are able to claim their £300 daily attendance allowance. When Parliament was recalled after the summer riots in August 2011, extra costs also included £32,228.56 for extra Hansard staff to record the debates, £5,000 in overtime for Met Police and £6,039 for tour guides. Parliamentary officials confirmed that MPs will be able to claim up to £3,750 each to return to Westminster. Foreign Secretary William Hague defended the cost of the debate, and next Wednesday's funeral. 'It's right Parliament meets and commemorates such a leader of historic proportions in our country's history,' he told BBC Breakfast. She changed the course of our history and there have been many comments over the last few days from all corners of the political spectrum. When it comes to money, the rebate she negotiated for this country from the EU has brought us so far £75 billion - 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. Mr Hague said he believed many people on the left's biggest problem with Lady Thatcher was "they could never beat her'. But left-wing Labour MPs defied their leader's call to be dignified in their response to the former Premier's death. Mr Healey, a senior Labour minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, condemned the decision to ask MPs to return to Parliament at all. And in a highly controversial move, he accused Mr Cameron of seeking to use Baroness Thatcher's death to bolster his own political popularity. Mr Healey said: "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. He said that in areas like South Yorkshire, where he is MP for Wentworth and Deane, "can't forget. Or forgive" the closure of coal mines in the 1980s. So many abhorred her government's actions, and detest her memory. They want to celebrate her death not her life but basic British decency holds people back in public, as it should. You don't speak ill of the dead at their funeral. Former Labour minister John Healey (left) accused Mr Cameron of hijacking Parliament's recall for political gain while Labour MP Ronnie Campbell said he would rather be in a 'torture chamber' than join the debate However, he condemned the decision to ask MPs and peers to return to Parliament today. Writing for PoliticsHome, he said: "Her death could and should have been marked when the Commons returns next week... Parliament is being used today for narrow political gain by the Prime Minister, as a platform for his Party's ideology not just eulogy." Mr Healey claimed Mr Cameron's tribute to Baroness Thatcher's achievements, including taking on the unions, privatising industry and rescuing the economy, was "partisan, divisive and diminishes the Prime Minister's Office." Her impact and influence is indisputable, but her legacy is too bitter to warrant this claim to national mourning. Ronnie Campbell, MP for Blyth Valley in Northumberland, told BBC Radio 4 he would 'rather be put in the torture chamber' than attend today's debate. 'Why we're being recalled at all this expense beggars belief. We could have done it next week. All this this afternoon is to heap praise on Margaret Thatcher. We could have done that next week. MPs arriving for the debate will pass the bronze statue of Baroness Thatcher by sculptor Antony Dufort in the member's lobby outside the Commons chamber The Union Flag was lowered to half mast over Portcullis House on Monday to mark the death of the former Conservative Prime Minister David Winnick, veteran Labour MP for Walsall North, insisted it would be "absolutely hypocritical if those of us who were opposed at the time to what occurred - the mass unemployment, the poverty - were to remain silent when the house is debating her life." He told The Guardian: "This will be an opportunity to speak frankly. Obviously when a person dies one regrets it. But what I do regret first and foremost is the immense harm, certainly in the West Midlands where deindustrialisation occurred. Even if it could be argued that some of it was inevitable, the manner in which it was done - the brutal contempt towards those who were innocent victims - was absolutely disgraceful. However, Tory MPs insisted Baroness Thatcher would have relished the debate over her legacy. She famously enjoyed boisterous debate in the Commons chamber, declaring 'I'm enjoying this' during her final appearance at the despatch box after announcing her intention to resign as Prime Minister. Conor Burns, a Tory MP who visited Lady Thatcher weekly, said that the views of her Labour critics did not 'matter much to Margaret when she was alive... I don't think they'll bother her very much now that she's dead'. He told BBC Radio 4: 'I actually think the people who are celebrating her death are actually paying her an incredible tribute. I remember discussing with her a couple of years ago the idea of a state funeral and she was delighted that the concept of just living was annoying the left. She always believed that there were two types of people who went into politics. There were those who went into politics to be something and those who went in to do something. Margaret was definitely a doer, and Tony Blair was right, when you decide, you divide, Margaret was a divisive figure, she did do very difficult things. Conservative Andrea Leadsom added: 'She never wanted to be a consensus politician. She set out to save Britain and she did it and the fact that, you know, if you want to make an omelette, you've got to crack a few eggs and she accepted that fact. In order to get to the end goal of turning Britain around, which she did, she had to cause some pain along the way, and she was prepared to do that.