Big Ben clock stops despite £80m works

TIME stood still in Westminster yesterday as the hands froze on the clock in the Elizabeth Tower for the second time in a week following an £80million refurbishment project.

The hands on all four dials stopped for approximately 30 minutes in the morning, just six months after the bell returned to regular service.

Sources put the stoppages down to a “bedding in” process following the refurbishment of the Elizabeth Tower, which took five years and was funded by tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer money.

A week ago the clock temporarily displayed the wrong time and Big Ben failed to chime at 1pm.

The hands stopped again yesterday, with the bells also falling silent – although sources said this was down to the chimes already being disconnected.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that two parliamentary investigations could be launched into the stoppages, as MPS on separate committees said they would raise the issue with their colleagues.

Big Ben was silenced in August 2017 for a four-year refurbishment expected to cost £29million. The Commons said then that it would “resume regular time-keeping duties in the course of 2021”. But the work was delayed, finally finishing in 2022, with the price tag rising to £80million.

The bells of the Elizabeth Tower, including Big Ben, as well as the west dial, were paused for a brief period yesterday to allow for servicing of the mechanism, following which both returned to their normal pattern of service.

A House of Commons spokesman said yesterday: “We are aware that the clock dials on the Elizabeth Tower were temporarily displaying the incorrect time this morning.

“Teams worked quickly to rectify the immediate issue and carried enhanced servicing to the mechanism shortly after, which has now completed.”