More than 700 Armed Forces personnel will take part in the funeral of Baroness Thatcher, it was announced as her son said she would have been "humbled" by the presence of the Queen at St Paul's Cathedral.

Sir Mark Thatcher said the family had been "overwhelmed" by messages of condolence and support they had received since the death of the former prime minister was announced on Monday.

In the Commons, recalled in special session to mark her death, David Cameron led the tributes from MPs to "an extraordinary leader and an extraordinary woman".

But with many Labour MPs choosing to stay away from Westminster, ministers defended the expenditure of public money on the funeral of a figure who remains so controversial.

Downing Street confirmed that there would be a contribution made from Lady Thatcher's estate, but said the cost to the taxpayer would not be disclosed until after the service next Wednesday had taken place.

The scale of the ceremonial funeral became clear as Downing Street said that the streets of central London would be lined by men and women from all three services for the procession to St Paul's.

Three military bands will play, their drums draped in black, while processional minute guns will be fired from Tower Wharf at Tower Bridge.

Her coffin will be carried into the cathedral by bearers drawn from ships, squadrons and regiments particularly associated with the Falklands War.

Sir Mark, in his first public comments since his mother's death, said the family was grateful and honoured that the Queen had agreed to attend the funeral.

"I know my mother would be greatly honoured as well as humbled by her presence," he said.

"We have quite simply been overwhelmed by messages of support, condolence of every type from far and wide and I know that my mother would be pleased they have come from people of all walks of life."

In the Commons, Mr Cameron said it would be a "fitting salute to a great prime minister".

"She made the political weather, she made history, and - let this be her epitaph - she made our country great again," he said.

Mr Cameron also paid tribute to the "generosity of spirit" of political opponents who had still turned out at Westminster to pay tribute to her.

Nevertheless, there were large gaps on the Labour benches, with many of the party's MPs preferring to remain in their constituencies.

Former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both announced that they would be among the mourners at St Paul's.

In the Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband said that Lady Thatcher had "defined the politics of a generation".

"Whatever your view of her, Margaret Thatcher was a unique and towering figure," he said.

But while he said that Lady Thatcher had been right to recognise the need for economic change, he said she had been wrong in treatment of the miners, gays and lesbians, and Nelson Mandela.

No 10 strongly defended Mr Cameron's decision to request the recall Parliament.

"Given her stature and importance, the Prime Minister thought that the right thing to do was to ask the Speaker to recall Parliament," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

Labour backbencher Glenda Jackson sparked howls of protest from Tory benches as she launched a full frontal assault on the "heinous" Thatcher record.

The Hampstead and Kilburn MP dispensed with any form of tribute to Lady Thatcher, telling the House: "There was a heinous social, economic and spiritual damage wreaked upon this country, upon my constituency and my constituents.

"I tremble to think what the death rate for pensioners would have been this week if that version of Thatcherism had been fully up and running this year (in the NHS).

"Parents, teachers, governors, even pupils seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising in order to be able to provide basic materials such as paper and pencils.

"By far the most dramatic and heinous demonstration of Thatcherism was not only in London but across the whole country in metropolitan areas, where every single shop doorway, every single night, became the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom for the homeless."

Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott, who entered Parliament in 1987, described Lady Thatcher as a "remarkable parliamentary phenomenon".

But the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said "millions of people up and down the country felt themselves to be on the wrong side of the titanic battles that she fought".

Ms Abbott said: "Whether it was the people who felt the Poll Tax was imposed on them wrongly, whether it was young people who were caught up in the difficult relationship between the police and communities in our inner cities, whether it was people who were dismayed at our unwillingness to impose economic sanctions on South Africa and dismayed as well by her insistence on calling the ANC a terrorist organisation, or whether it were communities caught up in the miners' strikes, there are still people living today who felt themselves on the wrong side of those titanic struggles."