Boris Johnson's aide says MPs who mourn Big Ben 'have no career ahead of them'

A Tory MP has blasted colleagues for gathering outside parliament to listen to Big Ben’s final bongs ahead of a four-year renovation project.

Conor Burns, an aide to Boris Johnson, said “the most enormous amount of nonsense had been talked” about the silencing of the bell amid hysteria over health and safety laws.

Labour MP Stephen Pound said he hoped at least 20 “like-minded traditionalists” would gather “with our heads bowed but hope in our hearts” today.

However, Burns told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “Colleagues saying the House of Commons commission is achieving something that even the Luftwaffe couldn’t achieve, stopping Big Ben.

“Big Ben was silenced for maintenance in 2007, it was refurbished between ’83 and ’85, it blew up in 1976 and was offline for a little while,” he said.

“I think when you see the footage tomorrow of our colleagues who gather at the foot of Big Ben you will not see too many colleagues who have careers ahead of them.”

Some have argued that silencing the iconic bell during renovation work is unnecessary.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said “it can’t be right” that the bongs will not be heard again until 2021. She has asked for the proposals to be reviewed.

On its front page, the Daily Mail screamed that it represented the “death knell for common sense.”

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“Big Ben silenced for FOUR years to protect workers’ hearing… yes, it’s all down to health and safety,” it said.

However, Chris Bryant, who sits on the Palace of Westminster’s restoration committee, said: “How anybody could think that this work could take place without the bell being silent, I cannot comprehend.”

Hugh Robertson, the TUC union’s health and safety expert, said it would be dangerous to expect workers to complete their jobs while the bell continued to ring.

“At nearly 120 decibels, it’s like putting your ear next to a police siren,” he said. “Protecting workers’ hearing is far from ‘health and safety gone mad’. It’s just plain common sense.”

The Unite union also that “it would result in the workers not being able to communicate effectively which impacts on safety and the efficiency of the workers.”

The 13.7 tonne Great Bell has sounded on the hour for 157 years, but last fell silent in August 2007 for a month. At the time, there was no backlash about the bell being silenced.