We conduct affairs of state in a building that’s riddled with asbestos and mice. Can’t Britain do any better? | Rupa Huq

We conduct affairs of state in a building that’s riddled with asbestos and mice. Can’t Britain do any better? Rupa Huq Parliament is steeped in history, but too many parts of the estate are dangerous and squalid. The promised upgrade can’t come a minute too soon Kemi Badenoch, mid-TV interview with Robert Peston at the House of Commons recently, was embarrassingly upstaged by a mouse. Just another day in a parliament building not fit for purpose. Last week, a critical meeting between the prime minister and his more than 400 MPs plus assorted peers (who total another 800) happened in a room only big enough to accommodate 170. Consider that the Commons chamber itself seats only 430 of the total 650 MPs. That same day, exhibition boards went up around parliament explaining the “restoration and renewal” options for the Palace of Westminster . They are expected to be voted on as early as March. Consider them and ponder whether this is how you want the nation’s most pressing affairs of state to be organised. One scenario has MPs relocating to different bits of parliament’s footprint while the works are executed, occupying the House of Lords during the redoing of the Commons chamber. There is precedent for this during the blitz when the House of Commons was bombed; many a Churchillian line such as “we will fight them on the beaches” was uttered from the red benches of the Lords rather than the Commons’ green benches. Then there is the “full decant” option, in which both houses would move while the job is done. Neither option comes cheap. It would be an estimated £8.4-£11.5bn and take 19 to 24 years for the full decant, whereas staying put would come at a whopping £11.8-£18.7bn and take somewhere between 38 and a staggering 61 years. The Palace of Westminster has been my workplace for 11 years. I love it dearly. But it desperately needs an urgent upgrade . ITV viewers may have been surprised by the sight of Badenoch and a mouse but we 650 honourable members were not. Nor we...