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BONG! Big Ben will not toll to mark Brexit next year, rules Theresa May's de facto deputy David Lidington

The Elizabeth Tower - containing Big Ben - before the refurbishment work started - Getty Images Europe
The Elizabeth Tower - containing Big Ben - before the refurbishment work started - Getty Images Europe

Big Ben will not sound to mark Britain leaving the European Union next year, Theresa May's de facto deputy has ruled.

David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, said there were "no arrangements" for the bell in the Palace of Westminster's Elizabeth Tower to toll to mark Brexit in March next year.

The announcement sparked concern among Eurosceptic Tory MPs with Jacob Rees-Mogg saying it was a matter for the House of Commons authorities and not for the Cabinet Office.

Mr Lidington has been asked by an SNP MP "whether he has had discussions with the House of Commons Commission about making arrangements for Big Ben to chime to mark the UK's departure from the EU."

He replied: "There are currently no arrangements for Big Ben to chime to mark the UK’s departure from the EU."

The decision was welcomed by campaigners to keep Britain in the EU who said the "public mood is shifting" against Brexit.

Eloise Todd, chief executive of Best for Britain said: "It doesn't matter if the bells toll or Elizabeth Tower is renovated in time because we still have the biggest decision to make yet. 

"If people don't want to leave and, it feels to me, the public mood is shifting, they don't have to.  I don't believe we should ring in Brexit, it is the biggest act of economic self harm in modern times."

Mr Rees-Mogg, who is the chairman of the 60-strong European Research Group of Tory MPs, blamed civil servants in Mr Lidington's department for making an error in making the statement in a written Parliamentary answer in the Commons.

MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “It obviously can be done as Big Ben is chiming on other important occasions while the works are going on. 

“I think it is a matter for the Parliament authorities, not the Government, so I am surprised that the Cabinet Office is involved.”

Andrew Bridgen, another Tory MP, said: "I think it is completely wrong. The biggest democratic decision in this country being enacted is a cause for celebration. 

"And to do that we need to have Big Ben ringing out our exit from the European Union and our reassertion of Parliamentary sovereignty."

A House of Commons spokesman said that Big Ben would sound during "important national events" but did not include leaving the EU as an example of one.

He said: “As previously announced, during refurbishment works Parliament’s specialist clock makers will ensure that Big Ben will still strike for important national events such as Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve."

Big Ben - known as the Great Bell in the Elizabeth Tower in Parliament -was controversially silenced last August ahead of a four year refurbishment of the tower costing more than £60million.

Big Ben's bongs were then restored by MPs over the Christmas period - between Dec 23 and Jan 1 - when work stopped and the clock mechanism was still in place.

Steve Jaggs, Keeper of the Great Clock, said last month it had "always been planned that its chimes would ring out across Whitehall for special occasions, where possible". 

Mr Lidington told The Telegraph at the weekend that Britain could rejoin a reformed EU within a generation.