Margaret Thatcher statue egged by arts centre boss hours after being installed
The man who egged a statue of Margaret Thatcher less than two hours after it was put up in Grantham has been revealed to be the deputy director of an arts centre.
Jeremy Webster put out a "call to arms" and revealed on social media that he "got the first hit with an egg".
The statue of Baroness Thatcher was installed in her home town on Sunday morning in defiance of threats of an attack, with Cllr Kelham Cooke, the Tory leader of South Kesteven District Council, saying: "We must never hide from our history."
Hours after the memorial was lowered onto its 10ft plinth on Sunday morning, Mr Webster, 59, began throwing eggs from behind a temporary fence surrounding it, with one making contact.
The £300,000 statue had originally been due to be placed in Parliament Square but was moved to the town in which Baroness Thatcher grew up because of fears of a "motivated far-Left movement... who may be committed to public activism".
After a £100,000 unveiling ceremony was approved by the council in 2020, a Facebook group proposing an "egg-throwing contest" at the event attracted interest from thousands of people.
In the wake of a backlash, the council announced that it would not give any public money to the unveiling, which was delayed by the Covid pandemic. A CCTV camera has been installed directly opposite the memorial in an attempt to combat the threat of vandalism, the authority said.
A number of motorists driving past the statue could be heard booing, with one man shouting: "Tear it down". Another said: "This is no good for Grantham, is it?" Others called online for it to be "thrown in the river" like the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.
Within hours of the monument being put in place, a video entitled "mystery man" and filmed from behind was posted on social media by Dee Barnes, Mr Webster's partner.
Mr Webster, the deputy director of the Attenborough Arts Centre, the University of Leicester's public arts programme, was also caught on camera by photographers and has claimed victory for his attack.
He also posted images of the statue with the message #pullitdown and joked that "South Wales miners are heading up to Grantham to remove her head", describing her as a "disgraced animal".
Mr Webster and Ms Barnes, who own a £400,000 property on the same street in which Baroness Thatcher was born above her father's grocery shop, could not be reached for comment.
Mr Webster spent more than 15 years working for Lincolnshire County Council in various roles including as area services director for the Usher Gallery and The Collection, according to his LinkedIn.
After leaving the council in 2011, he held roles at the National Centre for Craft and Design before moving to the University of Leicester.
The statue of Baroness Thatcher, around 20ft high, stands in Grantham's Civic Quarter between two statues of Sir Isaac Newton and Frederick Tollemache, a position designed to deter threats of vandalism.
A spokesman for South Kesteven District Council said the Public Memorials Appeal, which collected £300,000 for the statue through donations from residents and other individuals, would hold an official ceremony at a later date.
Cllr Cooke said the monument constituted a "fitting mtribute to a truly unique political figure", adding in a statement: "Margaret Thatcher will always be a significant part of Grantham's heritage.
"It is therefore appropriate that she is commemorated by her home town and that the debate that surrounds her legacy takes place here in Grantham."
A spokesman for Lincolnshire Police, whose officers arrived on the scene shortly after the egging, said: "We have received reports of criminal damage to the Margaret Thatcher statue shortly after 10am this morning. No arrests have been made. Enquiries are still ongoing."
