Arrest made after Grantham statue of Margaret Thatcher vandalised again

An 18-year-old woman has been arrested after a statue of Margaret Thatcher was vandalised.

The monument in Grantham, where the late prime minister was born, had graffiti sprayed on it in an act of vandalism reported on Tuesday evening.

The woman was arrested for criminal damage and issued with a fixed-penalty notice, Lincolnshire Police said.

The £300,000 bronze memorial to the first ever female prime minister was erected in May 2022 and has already been vandalised several times before.

It was first targeted just hours after it was erected in May, when a university worker threw eggs at the memorial. He was later fined by Lincolnshire Police.

Less than two weeks later, red paint was thrown at the statue. A hammer and sickle - a symbol of the Communist Party - was spray-painted on the fence put up to protect it.

In October 2022, as the Conservative Party chose its new leader, the commemorative monument was sprayed with the words 'Tories Out'.

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