MPS renew their appeal for chimes of Big Ben to ring out on ‘Brexit day’
Eurosceptics will table a motion today to overturn former Speaker’s ruling that it should stay silent
MORE than 50 MPS have launched a fresh campaign for Big Ben to chime the UK out of the EU on Jan 31 in a bid to overturn John Bercow’s ruling that it should be silent.
The group of Eurosceptics have requested that Brexit day is added to the list of special occasions for which the Great Bell of Westminster tolls.
The 160-year-old Elizabeth Tower, which houses the bell popularly known as Big Ben, is currently undergoing a £60million restoration.
A lift is being installed in the tower, while the clock hands and numbers are being repainted in their original blue.
The hourly chimes have been silenced to protect the hearing of construction workers in the tower and only sound at moments of national significance. The bell rang for Remembrance Sunday and will see in the new year, but Eurosceptics say it should also chime at 11pm on Jan 31, the moment the UK will leave the EU if Boris Johnson’s deal is passed in Parliament.
An earlier attempt to get the bell to ring on March 29, the original Brexit day, was blocked by a House of Commons committee chaired by John Bercow, who has now been replaced as Speaker by Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
The group of MPS includes a number of members of the Eurosceptic ERG, who will table a motion this morning to be debated in Parliament.
It is expected to be one of the first early day motions to be submitted this parliament. It calls upon the Speaker and parliamentary authorities “to make arrangements to ensure that Big Ben will chime at 11pm [on Jan 31], to provide an appropriate national focus for this truly historic event.”
Signatories include David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, and members of the DUP.
The Speaker’s office last night refused to comment on Sir Lindsay’s view on the matter.
Mark Francois, who is leading the group, told The Daily Telegraph: “The fact that Speaker Bercow was not a fan of Brexit is not exactly a state secret, and this explains his deep reluctance to allow Big Ben to chime on exit day.
“However, we are now in a new era, and it seems inconceivable to me and my colleagues that Big Ben would not form part of a national celebration to leave the EU. If readers agree, then I would encourage them to email their own member of parliament to this effect to encourage them to join our campaign so that our national icon of Big Ben will chime to mark the fact that we are again a free country.”
In March 2018, Mr Francois confronted Mr Bercow about the idea in the Commons chamber, asking him to use his “influence” to ensure Britons could “celebrate our freedom”.
Mr Bercow replied he did not want to “rehearse” the argument over the bell, telling him only one member of the Parliament Commission supported the idea when it was raised.
If successful, the campaign will see the bell included in celebrations across the UK. Parties have been planned around Westminster and elsewhere to mark the conclusion of the Brexit process, which will have taken more than three and a half years.
During the election campaign, Mr Johnson suggested there would be a “big baby-boom” in 2020 caused by couples celebrating Britain’s exit from the EU. “Cupid’s darts will fly once we get Brexit done. Romance will bloom across the whole nation,” he said.
Big Ben will ring out for the new year. Why should it not ring when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union at 11pm on January 31? It is undoubtedly a historic moment. Dozens of MPS have signed an early-day motion calling for the chimes. If the truth be told, the decision in 2017 to silence the bell for four years during building work was taken too lightly. After all, Big Ben’s chimes were broadcast nightly during the Second World War precisely to announce, without words, that the United Kingdom retained its autonomy. These things matter. The bell that keeps Greenwich Mean Time is not a symbol merely of Westminster, or London, or England; it hangs above a Parliament elected by all the citizens of the country. The bell will toll not for an end, but for a voyage into the future on which all embark.