The white marble statue of Baroness Thatcher, which soon after its unveiling was decapitated by a protester, has been banished from the House of Commons.

A Labour-led committee of MPs has voted to overturn the historic ruling by Betty Boothroyd, the former speaker, to allow the two-tonne statue to be the first of a living former prime minister to stand in the precincts of the Commons.

Previously, images of former parliamentarians could be put on display at Westminster only 10 years after their deaths.