Former sports minister Tony Banks has come out against two dozen of his fellow Labour MPs who have endorsed plans to send a £50,000 statue of Baroness Thatcher to Arizona.

The future of the statue, commissioned to be placed in the members lobby, is currently uncertain because of a convention which bans statues of former prime ministers from the Commons until five years after their death.

Lake Havasu, the Arizonan city which bought the old London Bridge has asked to be loaned the statue in the meantime.

Although a group of Labour MPs signed a motion saying "not only would (Arizona) be a perfect place for the statue to reside in the short term but it would also make a very appropriate permanent home", Banks, the chairman of the Commons Works of Art committee, says: "Her statue, with its marble handbag, should be located in the Members' Lobby as soon as it is deemed appropriate."