MPs and friends should transfer out of Parliament so crumbling constructing will be restored, says Labour chief in Lords
MPs and peers should fully move out of the House of Parliament so the crumbling 19th century building can be fully restored, the Labour leader in the House of Lords has said.
Baroness Smith of Basildon said she backed a ‘full decant’ of politicians to another building to allow the multibillion-pound rebuild of the palace of Westminster to go ahead.
The debate over how to revamp the historic site on the River Thames in central London Houses of Parliament has been ongoing for years as the cost has spiralled alongside concerns about the structural condition of the world heritage site.
The basement of the palace has previously been branded the ‘cathedral of horror’ because of the underground tangle of pipes, cables and wiring, with key services inaccessible, buried behind layers of more recent installations.
MPs and peers had agreed in 2018 a plan that would see both the Commons and Lords move to temporary facilities near the existing site, a ‘full decant’ to allow essential repairs and upgrades to be made.
But this was subsequently revisited amid concerns about the cost.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour, Baroness Smith said: ‘There’s no decant-free option.
‘My preference personally is for everyone to move out and have a full decant. But that will be for Parliament as a whole to decide how that can best be done.
‘It is very expensive but not doing anything is very expensive.’
The debate over how to revamp the historic site on the River Thames in central London Houses of Parliament has been ongoing for years as the cost has spiralled alongside concerns about the structural condition of the world heritage site.
Baroness Smith of Basildon said she backed a ‘full decant’ of politicians to another building to allow the multibillion-pound rebuild of the palace of Westminster to go ahead.
She added: ‘It’s one of those issues that keeps being put off and put off.
‘So I think we’re getting to the point where people have to recognise that the amount of money that’s being spend keeping the building going in a poor condition would be better spent getting the building to good condition.’
Three options are currently being developed to preserve the Palace of Westminster, ranging from temporarily relocating both Houses, keeping the Commons onsite while temporarily relocating the Lords, or conducting a rolling programme of works ‘to deliver enhanced maintenance and improvement’.
All the proposals are expected to cost billions of pounds, with estimates previously ranging from £7 billion to £22 billion.
The detailed work is expected to be presented to MPs and peers by the end of 2025 ‘to enable an evidence-based decision on how best to restore the palace’.
