PM: 'Can't be right' for Big Ben to be silent for four years during restoration work
Theresa May joins others in her party in attacking plans to silence the national monument for four years during restoration work.
Wednesday 16 August 2017 14:42, UK
Theresa May has attacked plans for Big Ben to be kept silent for four years while restoration work takes place.
It follows MPs calling for a review into whether the giant bell should only be allowed to chime on special occasions, such as New Year's Eve, until the work is complete.
The bell at the centre of the Elizabeth Tower's Great Clock is due to cease ringing next Monday to allow work to take place.
But the Prime Minister has called on Commons Speaker John Bercow to "urgently" review the plans.
She said: "Of course we want to ensure people's safety at work but it can't be right for Big Ben to be silent for four years.
"And I hope that the Speaker, as the chairman of the House of Commons commission, will look into this urgently so that we can ensure that we can continue to hear Big Ben through those four years."
Brexit Secretary David Davis has said having no chimes for four years was "mad" and he could not see what health and safety concerns required the clock to stay silent throughout the vast majority of that time.
He told the estate's authorities to "just get on with it".
Conservative MP James Gray, who sat on the administration committee that first approved the work, labelled the move "entirely bonkers".
But parliamentary officials insist the hearing of workers would be put at "serious risk" if it was allowed to chime.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake has asked Ian Ailles, the House of Commons director general, to carry out a review of the plans.
He said MPs did not know about the four-year silence when the work was signed off.
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."
The £29m conservation project includes the repair of the tower, which houses the Great Clock, and its bell.
The 96-metre-tall Elizabeth Tower, believed to be the country's most photographed building, is already half enveloped in scaffolding as part of the renovation.
One working clock face will remain visible at all times.