Now MPs plot to remain in Parliament as costs soar
A BID to ditch the controversial revamp of the Palace of Westminster has been launched in the wake of the ‘costs fiasco’ over restoring Big Ben.
Senior Government Ministers and top Commons figures are plotting to scrap plans to vacate the complex temporarily amid fears the estimated £6billion repair bill will rocket once
MPs have moved out.
The plan emerged after The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that the far smaller project to refurbish Big Ben alone had nearly tripled in cost to £80million.
The Commons voted two years ago to approve a ‘timely decant’ from the historic palace – with MPs set to move to the former headquarters of the Department of Health for up to eight years. But senior Ministers and other leading MPs are planning to force a vote to reverse that, allowing MPs to stay in Parliament while it is being repaired.
One said: ‘Many of us now have no confidence that once we’ve moved out, we won’t find out that the cost doubles or even trebles.
‘But if we stay in the building we’ll be much better able to manage that.’