Marcus Jones, the MP for Nuneaton, has signed an Early Day Motion to show his support for war memorials and places of worship, following a recent spate of metal thefts.

The EDM is seeking to raise awareness of the issue of metal thefts from war memorials and places of worship and is calling on the Government to review sentencing guidelines for those convicted of involvement in both the theft and the disposal of metal stolen from war memorials and places of worship.

The issue has recently received more prominence following the theft of a four foot bronze statue of a World War Two solider in Tidworth.

Commenting on the EDM, Marcus said: “Early Day Motions are a way of raising awareness about a particular issue and MPs are generally quite careful with which ones they support and which ones they don’t, as there are so many of them. This is one that is particularly relevant to Nuneaton given the theft of the Boer War statue in 2006 from Coton Road.

"This type of theft seems to be on the increase with both war memorials and places of worship being targeted. We are calling on the Goverment to review sentencing guidelines for this type of crime to better reflect the level of public feeling of the abhorrence of this crime.”

The Coton Road statue depicted an infantryman wearing a British Army uniform worn in the Boer War between 1899 and 1902. It was replaced in 2008 after generous public donation.