Theresa May pushes for £300,000 statue of Margaret Thatcher that would be an 'insult to the working class'

 Theresa May has suggested a planned statue of Margaret Thatcher should go ahead after it was blocked over fears it does not have the blessing of her family - and could be vandalised.

Backers had hoped the reported £300,000 memorial would join the likes of Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square.

The Public Memorials Appeal Trust saw their application derailed, with one objection saying the Tory leader's divisive legacy could leave the statue open to vandalism.

Since then Labour chairman Ian Lavery has now said it would be "wholly inappropriate" and "be seen as an insult to those whose communities and livelihoods were destroyed under her premiership."

He told the Mirror: "Working class people in this country would not stand for a Tory shrine in the heart of our capital city, that would rightly be seen as glorifying the destruction of her administration. 

This can not be tolerated."Yet Theresa May intervened today - by saying the threat of vandalism must not stop the statue going ahead. 

 

    

 Ivan Saxton, co-founder of the Public Memorials Appeal Trust, said in 2016 that there was "talk that (Carol) didn't like it because it isn't made of iron, but she doesn't mind that it's not made of iron - Carol's upset that there's no handbag"

.At the unveiling of her statue outside the House of Commons chamber in 2007, Lady Thatcher joked: "I might have preferred iron but bronze will do."