Emotions run high at Big Ben’s final peal

ONE onlooker, left, wiped away tears in Parliament Square as she heard Big Ben toll for the last time for four years yesterday. She was not the only one.

Labour’s MP for Ealing North Stephen Pound, right, also dabbed at his eyes, saying that the decision to silence the bell showed a ‘real poverty of imagination’.

Asked if he was partly responsible for the anger over the issue, he replied: ‘In my small way to contribute to the chimes of freedom ringing out, I put my hand up.’