£300,000 Margaret Thatcher Statue Vandalised With Red Paint

A £300,000 statue of Margaret Thatcher has had red paint thrown on it just two weeks after it was erected. 

Police are investigating the incident, which marks the second time the statue in Grantham, Lincolnshire, has been defaced. 

Lincolnshire police are now calling for witnesses to come forward with information about the incident, which took place on Sunday (29 May).

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The force said in a statement: “Just before 11.15pm yesterday we received reports of a person shown on CCTV acting suspiciously near the site.

"Officers attended and found graffiti had been spray painted onto the barriers surrounding the statue, no damage was thought to have been caused to the statue itself.

"This is being treated as criminal damage and an enquiry is ongoing." Police also advised witnesses to call 101, quoting incident number 488 of May 28.

On the day the statue was installed, eggs were thrown at it, and a man has since been fined for that attack.

The monument was installed on 15 May without ceremony and sits on a 10ft high plinth under CCTV surveillance.

The statue towers over St Peter's Hill Green, close to the site of the grocers shop owned by Baroness Thatcher's family.

Within two hours of it being put in place - and despite a temporary fence surrounding the memorial - eggs were thrown at it.

Video shared on social media showed a man in a white t-shirt approach the site with a box of eggs before throwing three towards the statue.

The first two missed, but the protester connected with one egg, which was still visible on the statue that afternoon.

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The culprit was later revealed to be Jeremy Webster. Webster is deputy director at the University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre and the university issued a statement after his identity was revealed, ITV News reported at the time. 

The University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre said it ‘does not condone defacement’.

Webster was issued a £90 fine with police confirming: “He has been given a £90 fixed penalty notice under section 5 of the Public Order Act.”

The divisive memorial was offered to South Kesteven District Council after Westminster Council rejected it amid fears of ‘civil disobedience and vandalism’.

A planned £100,000 unveiling ceremony was heavily criticised in 2020 and more than 13,000 expressed interest in a proposed ‘egg-throwing contest’ on Facebook.

The UK's first female prime minister - dubbed the Iron Lady - was born in Grantham in 1925 and died in April 2013, aged 87.

The only previous memorial to her in the town was a plaque on the corner of North Parade and Broad Street to mark where she was born.