Big Ben bongs won't go ahead for Brexit day, campaigners admit as fundraising drive cancelled

The party is being planned in Parliament Square
AFP via Getty Images
Katy Clifton27 January 2020
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Campaigners raising money to pay for Big Ben to ring out on Brexit day have admitted defeat after raising more than £270,000.

The organisers of the appeal said they had failed to persuade the House of Commons authorities to allow the bell to ring.

A GoFundMe page was set up after Boris Johnson suggested the Government was "working up a plan so people can bung a bob for a Big Ben bong" on January 31.

But no such plan existed and the House of Commons Commission estimated that the cost of bringing the bell back into action could be as much as £500,000.

Boris Johnson on BBC Breakfast
BBC

The fundraising appeal, led by Stand Up 4 Brexit and Tory MP Mark Francois, was cancelled at midday on Monday.

The £272,770 raised is now being donated to the Help for Heroes military charity.

Mr Francois said the campaign received more than 14,000 donations from 56 countries in less than a fortnight.

Deputy Chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) Mark Francois
Getty Images

“The response from the British people has been fantastic and we are deeply grateful to everyone who donated,” the former minister said.

“However, having made final attempts over the last several days to persuade the House of Commons authorities that Big Ben should chime, we regret to report that we have been unsuccessful and therefore we feel we can no longer ask people to donate.

“We officially closed the fund at noon today.”

He added that “even though Big Ben will regrettably not chime for Brexit” many people “will be celebrating the fact that we become a free country again” at 11pm on January 31.

That was “the greatest prize of all”, he said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in