‘Unacceptable cloak of secrecy’ around Houses of Parliament restoration, says MP
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has told Sky News she “could weep for the five years” lost by the decision to abolish the organisation set up to managed the long-term renovation of parliament.
Dame Meg Hillier MP says there is an “unacceptable cloak of secrecy” around the restoration programme which she says was effectively sent back to the drawing board after the estimated bill rose to between £7 and £22 billion.
But every week the work isn’t done costs £2.5m maintenance – and former leader of the house Dame Andrea Leadsom says she’s worried the Palace of Westminster could be Britain’s Notre Dame.
After decades of debate, MPs are still intensely divided about the cost of the work, whether they have to move out of parliament, and where their temporary home might be if so.
When the Palace of Westminster burnt to the ground in 1834 the flames were so high they could be seen from 20 miles away.
Palace of Westminster on Fire 1834. Pic: UK Parliament
Politicians of the day had spent many years beforehand arguing about the need to renovate the old parliament.
Now, nearly 200 years later, many fear that without large-scale restoration work a similar disaster could befall its successor.
But after decades of debate, the organisation set up by parliament in 2018 to manage the huge renovation project has been scrapped.
“I could weep for the five years we’ve lost,” says Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee. “There was a real issue here about shooting the messenger.
“It feels very much like we are back to square one. Now we have no sponsor body, no plans to carry out the work, and there’s still argument about whether we should stay in the building while the work is done or not.
“This is not about us as MPs. This is about a building that belongs to the country – yes, it will cost a lot of money, but you can’t dodge it.”
A recent report from the committee concluded any likely start date “has been pushed back by many years because of repeated attempts to revisit the basis of the programme”.
“We do not want it to take another catastrophic incident to finally galvanise action,” it reads.
What work is actually taking place?
Ongoing repair work to strengthen the roof and Victorian masonry is constantly under way and work has recently been carried out to restore the ceiling of St Stephen’s Hall, for example (on the site of the original Commons Chamber, which burnt down), as well as the renovation of the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben.
But the real challenge is in the vast, labyrinthine basement with gas and dripping water pipes jumbled together alongside a morass of electric wiring, telephone cables, and even a working steam engine which is part of the Victorian sewage system.
Dr Alexandra Meakin, a politics lecturer at the University of Leeds, is an expert on the restoration programme. She says the mess in the basement is a disaster waiting to happen.
“With gas and steam pipes running alongside each other, even a tiny leak, there is a huge fire risk – it’s only allowed to stay open at all if there are fire wardens patrolling 24 hours a day.
“The risk is real, it’s not just cosmetic work. And it’s not just about the MPs and peers, but about the staff who work there – the thousands of people in catering and cleaning who shouldn’t have to work in a death trap, not to mention all the millions of visitors, including school children.”
The palace is also riddled with asbestos – last year it emerged a leak during building work meant up to 117 contractors and staff had potentially been exposed.
“If you try to do major work in the palace, it’s going to be difficult to work around it,” says Dr Meakin. “Asbestos runs the whole length of the building.”
Concerns over costs, timescales and governance
In January 2018, parliament voted to move forward with plans to vacate the building – known as a ‘decant’ – and carry out a full renovation, setting up an independent sponsor body (a team of some 55 staff and experts as well as parliamentarians) to lead and manage the project along the lines of the London Olympics.
Last January they published provisional cost and schedule estimates which predicted that the essential works alone would cost between £7bn and £13bn – and take 19 to 28 years.
If MPs and peers insisted on staying put, they warned the project could end up lasting as long as 76 years, and cost as much as £22bn.
For some, this was just too much to accept.
In March, the Commissions of the House of Commons and Lords (made up of the speakers, clerks and other senior parliamentarians) said they had concerns over the project’s costs, timescales and governance.
They recommended scrapping the sponsor body altogether and bringing the vast project in house.
MPs and Lords voted that through in the summer, and the decision passed into law just before Christmas.
Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh is sceptical of what he describes as the “ridiculous” estimates drawn up by the sponsor body.
“There are ways of doing it that mean you don’t have to move everybody out at vast expense,” he claims.
“We can’t have a very expensive gold-plated plan, especially when the economy is in tatters – the public would look askance at parliament spending £20bn on itself.”
‘We just need to get on with it’
Last month the Shadow Leader of the House, Thangam Debbonaire MP, accused some MPs of “undermining” the work of the sponsor body and “wrangling with the experts”.
Sir Edward denies this is the case, and says it’s right for MPs and Lords to take back control of the project.
“We just need to get on with it and make it safe,” he says.
Dame Meg Hillier by contrast describes the commission’s intervention as “grubby”.
“If they did this to any other piece of legislation, there would be uproar,” she says. “I’m incredibly concerned.
“We’ve seen huge problems in the past – costs nearly tripled during the renovation of the Elizabeth Tower, and the memory of what happened with Portcullis House [which ended up substantially over budget and schedule when built to house MPs’ offices in the 1990s] still haunts people here.”
Where would staff move to?
Another complication is the lack of consensus on where the occupants of the Palace of Westminster would move to, even if agreement is reached on the need for them to do so.
While long-established plans had been developed to decant the Lords to the nearby Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, then-prime minister Boris Johnson later asked the programme to explore the option of sending them to York instead.
In May 2022 Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove also intervened, saying he would rather see them moving to Stoke.
As for MPs, under a previous phase of the project, £70m was spent preparing plans to rebuild Richmond House, the old Department of Health building in Westminster.
But that idea has now been dropped as being too expensive; and while some hope that the remote working technology used during COVID-19 could help provide a solution, reaching consensus on this aspect of the programme alone is clearly fraught with disagreement.
‘One of the most famous buildings in the world’
As former leader of the house, Dame Andrea Leadsom MP shepherded the 2018 legislation through parliament.
She says the decision to undo much of it “seems a means to kick the situation into the long grass – it’s disastrous.
“I get that it’s a huge bill, and I’m sympathetic to the need to get value for taxpayers’ money – but this is one of the most famous buildings in the world.
“There have been something like 50 fire incidents in the recent decade, any one of them could have resulted in a kind of Notre Dame style absolute burning down of the palace.
“There’s a huge amount of money being spent already just to patch and mend… we just need to crack on and do it rather than circling back round all the time and changing the decisions about how we’re going to do it.”
When will the next vote take place?
MPs are now expected to vote on a new strategy by the end of next year.
In a statement, parliament said: “In July 2022 members of both Houses agreed a more integrated approach to future restoration, prioritising safety critical work. We are getting on with work across the parliamentary estate to ensure the safety of those who work and visit here, and to support the continued business of parliament.
“This includes planning for the large and complex restoration of the Palace of Westminster to preserve it for future generations.
“More than 2,000 areas of the palace have been investigated this year to give a better understanding of the building’s condition. These surveys will inform a wide set of options for delivery of the restoration work, including the level of ambition during these challenging economic times.”
Inside a dimly-lit storeroom in Tine’s central market, near the border of North Darfur and Chad, we are shown a haunting video.
Young men crouched on the ground and covered in sand stare up at a phone camera helplessly.
A loud male voice interrogates them and demands to know what they are smuggling into Al Fashir, the regional capital besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
One responds with “rice” and another says “pasta”.
“I will swat all of you like flies,” the man says from behind the camera, before pointing his gun at each of their heads and feigning lethal headshots in a mock execution.
We are shown the clip by Ahmed* and Hassan*, who are using pseudonyms for their protection.
The young men in the video are just one of the many teams they coordinate to smuggle food and lifesaving supplies into Sudan‘s Al Fashir, where around 900,000 people are being forced into famine by an RSF blockade while being bombarded by deadly drone strikes and shelling.
The dangers of this work are extreme as smuggling routes rapidly open and close, and battles for control rage inside the city.
Some of the teams they send make it to Al Fashir, but many do not. The three men in the video are still missing and are feared dead.
“The situation in Al Fashir is catastrophic – you cannot afford to watch and do nothing,” says Ahmed in front of a stack of flour sacks piled up to the ceiling.
“We have no option but to offer what we can for people to eat and survive the shelling.”
Read more: Inside the epicentre of Sudan’s war
The young smugglers are trying to distribute vital supplies
As we drive to the storeroom, their phones constantly ping with messages, voice notes and phone calls.
As Ahmed fires back a voice note requesting costings on bulk food items, Hassan brings his phone to his ear and listens.
He sighs with frustration and says: “We just received a message from HQ that one of our guys smuggling in insulin hasn’t arrived and was likely killed.
“He has been missing for three days. We have to count him among the dead.”
Hassan tells us they are being targeted by the RSF, adamant to uphold their siege.
“It happens a lot. Three days ago, we had a group of 12 people break up into three teams of four. Two of the teams arrived, but one group never surfaced.”
A map showing the berms – raised banks – surrounding Al Fashir. Pic: Yale School of Public Health
Ahmed* and Hassan* spoke to us on the condition of anonymity
The number of dead is mounting and uncountable. They tell us they have lost 30 volunteers in the first week of September alone.
Their network of fearless first responders was born out of the resistance committees created to organise and assist targeted protesters during Sudan’s 2019 revolution.
Now, they carry the burden of feeding and treating war-impacted civilians across the country through the Nobel Peace Prize nominated Emergency Response Rooms.
The battle for Al Fashir – and Sudan
Al Fashir is being suffocated to death by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they push to claim full control of the Darfur region as a base for their parallel government, after the military recaptured the capital Khartoum and other key sites in central Sudan.
Close to a million people are facing famine in Al Fashir and surrounding camps as the RSF enforces a full blockade, launching armed attacks on volunteers and aid workers risking their lives to bring in food.
Inside the city, thousands are bombarded by almost daily shelling from surrounding RSF troops.
The RSF have physically reinforced their siege with a berm – a raised earth mound. First spotted by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, the berm is visible from space.
The Sudan war started in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the RSF broke out in Khartoum.
The US special envoy to Sudan estimates that 150,000 have been killed, but the exact figure is unknown. Close to 12 million people have been displaced.
Several mediation attempts have failed to secure a humanitarian access mechanism or any lulls in fighting.
The RSF are not just targeting these civilian volunteers but also aid convoys attempting to deliver food.
On 3 June, a World Food Programme (WFP)-UNICEF aid convoy approaching Al Fashir was attacked, with five convoy personnel being killed and several food trucks destroyed.
Last month, another WFP convoy approaching an RSF-held town, Mellit, was attacked, and three trucks were set on fire.
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‘Where is the humanity?’
Near a makeshift displacement shelter in Tine, 24 WFP trucks full of food are parked at a transshipment point under the sun.
The trucks will set off to towns in North Darfur that are controlled by the RSF: Mellit, Kutum and Korma.
Korma is only 43 miles from Al Fashir, but aid trucks will not brave facing the RSF by approaching the besieged capital.
WFP Sudan’s country director Laurent Bukera says: “For months, the UN has been trying to secure guarantees for a humanitarian pause allowing safe delivery to the city.
“We received clearances from the government of Sudan’s humanitarian aid commission to deliver aid into Al Fashir and are renewing these, but the RSF has yet to communicate support for a humanitarian pause.”
The WFP has struggled to distribute food in Sudan
Volunteers call for aid airdrops
Hassan, Ahmed and other volunteers we met are calling for food air drops, similar to those in Gaza and South Sudan.
“We need safe humanitarian passage for the delivery of aid – by road or by air drop,” says Hassan. “That is the responsibility of the international community as a neutral entity that can navigate the belligerents.”
But navigating these belligerents has proven difficult for mediators and the United Nations.
Read more from Sky News:
Catastrophic malnutrition in Sudan’s besieged city
War crimes are taking place in Sudan, ICC believes
Since the start of the war in April 2023, there has not been a single humanitarian pause or ceasefire that would allow for the guaranteed safe passage of aid.
“We are exploring every option to get aid into Al Fashir,” says Mr Bukera. “Airdrops are up to 10 times more expensive and extremely risky due to high risk of drone strikes, anti-aircraft weapons and shelling in and around Al Fashir.
“Also with the absence of humanitarian pause, to date, no aircraft and pilot have been willing to take the risk.”
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Until a safe corridor for aid is established, Al Fashir’s young volunteers will continue to face death to get food to their besieged and bombarded relatives in friends inside the city.
“If we don’t do it – it’ll be a slow genocide. So, better to die trying,” says Hassan.
“We have no other option but to take these risks.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s moment in the United Nations General Assembly chamber came a day after he told Sky News that Donald Trump’s language represented a “big shift” in America’s stance on Ukraine.Â
The dust is settling on US President Trump’s social media post on Tuesday.
While it unquestionably represents a shift in position – now claiming Ukraine can take back all of the land lost – big questions remain about Mr Trump‘s personal and material commitment to a Ukrainian victory.
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Zelenskyy tells Sky News Trump has made ‘big shift’
President Zelenskyy addresses the United Nations General Assembly. Pic: AP
Mr Zelenskyy is taking the win that the language represents, but he, more than anyone, knows that Mr Trump can turn on a dime.
And so his speech was a warning, a message and a continued plea for help.
The Ukrainian leader cited history in warning that Russia won’t stop unless it is defeated.
Mr Zelenskyy said: “We have already lost Georgia in Europe. Human rights and the European nature of the state system are only shrinking there.
“Georgia is dependent on Russia and for many, many years, Belarus has also been moving towards dependence on Russia.”
“Putin will keep driving the war forward, wider and deeper… Ukraine is only the first. Russian drones are already flying across Europe.”
“Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova too,” he said.
UN latest: Zelenskyy tells UN ‘God saved’ Trump from assassination
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‘NATO should shoot down Russian jets violating airspace’
Drawing on the experience of his country, he warned of what he said was a uniquely dangerous proliferation of weapons.
“We are living through the most destructive arms race in human history,” he said, warning specifically of the dangers of drones which will soon be controlled by artificial intelligence (AI).
But he also warned of the proliferation of the use of violence, whether it be from nation states or from political activists.
He cited the assassination attempts on Mr Trump and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
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Trump complains of broken escalator and teleprompter at UN
He included these moments not just because he believes they represent a dangerous and tragic shift but because he knows he needs to keep President Trump and his base of support on side. Showing empathy with them is important.
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He spoke in perfect English. Not long ago, he struggled with the language. He knows that now, more than ever, he needs to communicate in the language of those who hold the key to his country’s future.
“Of course, we are doing everything to make sure Europe truly helps, and we count on the United States,” he said.
He closed with a plea to the nations of the world, gathered in the chamber.
“Don’t stay silent while Russia keeps dragging this war on… Please join us in defending life, international law and order,” he said.
“People are waiting for action.”
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