Yougov research from January 2012 found that barely one in ten Britons thought Thatcher should have a State Funeral and the largest group thought her funeral should be small.

Controversy sparked briefly following Thatcher’s death over the kind of funeral she should be granted, with Tory MPs calling for a State Funeral, an occasion usually reserved for senior members of the Royal Family - but granted to Winston Churchill in 1965. Detractors on the other hand say even the ceremonial funeral that has been confirmed, to be like the one granted to Princess Diana, will be too much.

Amid the disagreement a Yougov survey from 2012 shows just 11% of the British public thought that the former PM should have a State Funeral. The largest proportion, 44%, thought Lady Thatcher should have a “smaller, private funeral”, followed by 37% who thought she should have a “big, public funeral at a major cathedral, but not a State Funeral”.

Baroness Thatcher said she didn’t want a State Funeral, calling it “inappropriate”, and had called the idea of a military fly-past at her service a “waste of money”.

Perhaps in accordance with Lady Thatcher's wishes, not even a quarter (23%) of Conservative voters thought she should have a State Funeral, but a majority (53%) thought she should have a big, public funeral. The majority of Labour voters (66%) thought she should have a small, private funeral and the Lib Dems were almost evenly split between supporting a big funeral (42%) and a smaller funeral (46%).

New Yougov research, to be published tomorrow, will show the public’s reaction to the current plan for a ceremonial funeral for Lady Thatcher.