No Big Ben bong for Brexit amid row over cost
Boris Johnson is to have a clock projected on to the walls of his Downing Street residence to count down to Brexit after his attempts to get Big Ben to bong failed.
The British Prime Minister will also deliver an address to the nation on television, hold a Cabinet in the north of England and ensure Parliament Square will be lined with Union flags to mark leaving the European Union on January 31.
No 10 also confirmed the longplanned 50p Brexit coin will enter circulation, stamped with the Brexit date and the message “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations”.
Downing Street said the light display would include “a clock counting down to 11pm projected on to the black bricks of Downing Street. Buildings around Whitehall will also be lit up”.
It came as the row over Big Ben’s bongs deepened after the Telegraph website disclosed the £500,000 (nearly NZ$1 million) cost of allowing Big Ben to bong on Brexit night was 35 times more than the bill for New Year’s Eve.
Mark Francois MP demanded an inquiry, while Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the figure had been “conjured up deliberately to stop any discussion about Big Ben sounding”.
The Commission had rejected a request to allow the Great Bell to chime, despite 60 Tory MPs demanding it in a letter to the Sunday Telegraph, saying it would cost £500,000. But Sir Paul Beresford, a senior Tory member of the Commission, told MPs the bell cost just £14,200 to sound on other occasions.
The clock tower has been undergoing a major makeover.