The V&A museum very unsubtly turned down the chance to exhibit Margaret Thatcher's clothes

The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London has turned down the chance to exhibit former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's clothes on the grounds that the museum is only interested in items of "outstanding aesthetic or technical quality".

The Conservative prime minister and only woman to hold the office to date died in 2013, and her estate passed on to her children.

They asked the V&A if they would like to mount an exhibition which would include Thatcher's midnight-blue wedding dress, outfits worn at seminal political events and other famous trademarks such as her pearls and red dispatch box.

The world famous arts and decorative design museum, which recently finished an exhibit of designer Alexander McQueen's work, not-so-subtly declined. In a statement put out on Monday a spokesperson said:

The V&A politely declined the offer of Baroness Thatcher's clothes, feeling that these records of Britain’s political history were best suited to another collection which would focus on their intrinsic social historical value.

The museum is responsible for chronicling fashionable dress and its collecting policy tends to focus on acquiring examples of outstanding aesthetic or technical quality.

Around 350 items from Thatcher's wardrobe are due to be sold at auction at Christie's in December.

A separate lot of Thatcher's clothes sold at Christie's in 2012 were bought by an anonymous South Korean-based bidder.

More: Why Thatcher could have been controversial for a very different reason