Big Ben’s repair bill has risen by nearly £20m following a litany of blunders.
Parliamentary authorities admitted last night that the £80m cost for repairs to Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower and its famous clock was now more than £50m more than the original £29m estimate, having already doubled two years ago.
More than £2m was added to the bill after the specialist clock team failed to fix the timepiece mechanism, meaning it had to be sent off-site.
The overruns do not bode well for the £3bn restoration programme for the rest of Palace of Westminster.
