Senior MPs pile on pressure to keep Big Ben ringing

Commons chiefs faced growing pressure today not to silence the bongs of Big Ben for four years during renovation work.

Senior MPs claimed they had been kept in the dark about the controversial proposals. More parliamentarians today spoke out against the move to turn off the bells for health and safety reasons.

Senior backbench Tory MP Nigel Evans accepted measures had to be taken to protect the hearing of workers doing the work.

But he called for “imaginative, out-of-the-box ideas” to allow the bells to toll at some times. He said: “Why can’t they switch the bells back on when they stop working at 5pm or 6pm or whenever it is? Also why is it taking four years?”

Former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Adonis tweeted: “4 yrs to repair Big Ben?! We could have left the EU twice in that time.”

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake has contacted Ian Ailles, House of Commons director general, calling for a review of the plans.

Mr Brake said: “I have asked whether someone can do some work working out what the costings and the practicality of ringing them more frequently would be.

“It would not be possible for them to continue to be rung every 15 minutes as is currently the case, that would not be practical. But it may be perhaps practical and it may be financially viable to ring them more frequently than is currently being proposed.”