Businessmen and MPs will be among those representing Sussex at Lady Thatcher's funeral today.

They have been joined in London by students and retired workers on both sides of the fence.

Follow The Argus' live coverage of the funeral here.

Mourners and protesters were arriving in the capital as early as 6.30am.

Doors to St Paul's Cathedral, where the funeral service of Baroness Thatcher will be held, opened at 9am, shortly after flags were lowered to half-mast at Government buildings.

Teams of police arrived on The Strand at 7am and had closed the road to traffic by 8am.

Waiting in Whitehall - part of the route her coffin will take on its journey to St Paul's - were Brighton University students Rebecca May, 21, and Javiar Mansell, 20.

Ms May said: "I feel people protesting should remember Lady Thatcher was a mother and a grandmother."

Mr Mansell said: "I don't think people my age have the right to protest about her policies.

"We are here out of respect. Also, it's a historic event."

A small group of protesters gathered at Ludgate Circus, near to St Paul's, to demonstrate against the "glorifying" of Lady Thatcher's funeral and cuts to the welfare state.

Retired teacher Henry Page was at St Paul's with a protest banner.

The 61-year-old said: "The reason I have come today is because £10 million in the current economic climate is inappropriate when people can't afford to pay their bills.

"If the cost of this were acceptable, we would know what that cost is. But we don't."

Mr Page, from Brighton, said he did not believe it was credible that the cost was not known after years of planning.

He added: "Attlee did not get a state funeral or a ceremonial funeral. He was the prime minister who founded the NHS, he was Churchill's deputy prime minister in the national government.

"It almost begs the question: is it only Tories that get a state or ceremonial funeral?"

Hundreds of union members are expected to meet in Brighton this evening.

Alex Knutsen, the Unison branch secretary for Brighton and Hove, expected “quite a number” of members, as well as people from other unions, to be meeting at the Clock Tower at 6pm.

He said: “It’s not a party. Most of us will be there because of the policies of the Conservative Government in the 1980s and the attitude of the present Government to giving their ex-leader effectively a state funeral at the cost of the public purse.” 

Tens of thousands of people are expected to line the streets of central London to remember the life of Britain’s first female Prime Minister today.

With opinion on the polarising politician split, the nation will be watching as her coffin is taken from Westminster to St Paul’s Cathedral for the ceremonial funeral.

Among those attending will be Hove MP Mike Weatherley and Brighton Kemptown MP Simon Kirby.

‘Great woman’

However more senior backbench colleagues, such as Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames, have not received invitations.

Mr Kirby said: “We had to apply to be invited and I was very pleasantly surprised to hear I was one of the successful applicants.

“I understand that when you make difficult decisions you do not keep everyone onside but it’s important to remember and celebrate the great woman she quite clearly was.”

Mr Weatherley said: “Margaret Thatcher will rightly be remembered as a formidable politician and the plans for her funeral look set to give her the send-off that she deserves.

“I have been absolutely disgusted by the behaviour of some left-wing zealots who have been attempting to detract from what is a sombre event, especially for the family of Lady Thatcher, and indeed for the country.”

Worthing West MP Sir Peter Bottomley – who was at one time a member of Thatcher’s Government – and his wife, Conservative peer Baroness Bottomley, are among those confirmed.

Sir Peter said: “Margaret Thatcher kindly came to help my success in the 1975 by-election success. I liked her."

Glyndebourne chairman Sir George Christie and businessman Stuart Wheeler, who has strong Sussex links, are also expected.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, the only opposition MP in Sussex, has not received an invitation.

Baroness Thatcher’s coffin yesterday arrived at Westminster as the former Prime Minister paid her final visit to Parliament.

Draped in a Union flag, the coffin was brought by hearse to the Houses of Parliament, where Lady Thatcher’s body remained overnight.