Labour's 'Willy' clock ad angers Tories

Angry Conservative MPs last night called on the Speaker of the Commons to intervene after the Labour Party used the end of British Summer Time as the peg for a stunt involving William Hague and a "Little Willy" clock projected onto the side of the Houses of Parliament, writes Colin Brown.

Angry Conservative MPs last night called on the Speaker of the Commons to intervene after the Labour Party used the end of British Summer Time as the peg for a stunt involving William Hague and a "Little Willy" clock projected onto the side of the Houses of Parliament, writes Colin Brown.

A huge photograph of the Opposition leader's face was projected onto the Palace of Westminster near Big Ben with the hands of the clock turning backwards.

Tory MPs called on Michael Martin, the newly-elected Labour Speaker, to order his party to stop using the Parliament building for stunts.

"This will be the first test of the Speaker's independence," said one Tory chairman of a Commons select committee. "These stunts tend to backfire on Labour but they should not be using the Commons."

The show was not the first to use the riverside walls of the Commons. A naked portrait of the TV presenter Gail Porter led to complaints about the use of such large advertisements at the Palace of Westminster. Footballer David Beckham's image has also been projected there.

Mr Hague's face was projected with the slogan, "Don't go back to Tory boom and bust". The advertisement was repeated on Labour's official party internet website.

The Cabinet Office minister, Mo Mowlam, said: "I hope that when people turn their clocks back today they will stop and think just what it would be like if we went back to the Tory ways of doing things.

"They want us to go back to under-investing in Britain, political control over interest rates, house repossession, and recession. They want to take us back to boom and bust."

British Summer Time ended at 2am today when clocks should have been turned back one hour.