But, guess what, Corbyn backs ’elf and safety

JEREMY Corbyn sided with the unions yesterday and backed the plan to silence Big Ben for four years.

The Labour leader said health and safety must come first and the public should put up with it. He said silencing the bell was ‘not a national disaster’.

His comments came after the TUC said silencing Big Ben was ‘plain common sense’. But MPs have suggested a series of quick-fix solutions, including buying headphones for workers which enable them to block out the noise of the bell while still being able to communicate.

Other options include sounding the bells at less frequent time periods, rather than just at New Year’s Eve and on Remembrance Sunday as proposed.

Mr Corbyn told LBC radio: ‘Well, the work clearly has to be done and I’ve been listening to Big Ben for many years and I’ll certainly miss it, so if we can have a... some kind of playing of Big Ben’s sound would be a very good idea.

‘Or we could have bells from all over the country played at various points.

‘I hope Big Ben comes back but, obviously, people working right alongside that wonderful massive bell need to be protected as well and so their safety, their working conditions and their health must come first, and so if we have to miss Big Ben in reality for a while so that work can be done, well, that’s something we have to go through. It’s not a national disaster or catastrophe.’

Conservative MP James Gray accused Mr Corbyn of ‘trying to prove himself as the workers’ friend’.

He added: ‘Of course we are all concerned about health and safety but there are many industries in which workers have to work in extremely noisy conditions.

There is a duty to mitigate that. I’m not saying let’s sacrifice the workers, I’m saying let’s find a way of ensuring their safety while maintaining a national institution.’