Tory plan for Big Ben to bong in Brexit day celebration scuppered

Amendment to withdrawal bill not picked - in blow to scores of hard Brexit-backing Conservative MPs

A Conservative campaign for Big Ben to bong specially to “celebrate” the moment Brexit goes ahead on 31 January appears to have been dashed.

An amendment to the withdrawal agreement bill to require the famous bell to be re-attached at 11pm on Brexit day – at unknown cost – has not been selected for debate.

The decision is a blow to scores of hard Brexit-backing Tory MPs, including David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, who had signed a Commons motion demanding the move.

The 315ft, Grade I listed Elizabeth Tower which holds the bell and clock face is undergoing a £61m restoration in which costs have already more than doubled.

However, Downing Street is planning events to mark the moment the UK leaves the European Union, after nearly 47 years – without saying what – and could yet renew the push for Big Ben to bong.

And Nigel Farage has claimed he is planning to throw a £100,000 party in Parliament Square on 31 January, with fireworks, bands and speakers.

The office of new Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle told The Independent that the amendment had not been selected for debate.

MPs are about to begin three days of detailed scrutiny of the withdrawal bill, which – after Boris Johnson’s election triumph – is likely to sail through unchanged.

Other amendments include a Labour demand for the post-Brexit transition period to be extended by two years to December 2022, if the prime minister fails to secure a free trade agreement with the EU by the end of this year.

And Northern Ireland parties from across the communal divide have united to table changes to require unfettered access for the province’s goods to markets on the British mainland.

The plan for Big Ben to ring out at 11pm on 31 January has also been criticised because Brexit remains an issue of huge national controversy – rather than a united celebration.

Furthermore, the prime minister remains under fire for claiming he will “get Brexit done” this month, when the much-harder task of striking an acceptable future trade deal still lies ahead.

James Dudderidge, a Brexit minister, appeared quietly pleased that the controversy had been avoided, telling the BBC: “My focus is on getting the detail of the bill done.”

Any special chiming would require two days of rehearsal and testing to ensure it still works, it is thought.

And it currently chimes only with the ominous low E 'dong' of the 13.7-tonne Great Bell – not the musical 'quarter bells' which make up the clock's famous chime.

Asked this week about Mr Johnson’s intentions for 31 January, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “It’s clearly a significant moment in our country’s history, but we will set all of our plans out shortly.”