The Palace of Westminster is to be sold-off and Parliament will move to the Olympic Stadium as part of a drastic plan to cut cost of politics, ePolitix.com has learnt.
Due to be unveiled as part of Nick Clegg's House of Lords reform package later this month, Parliament will move to the East End of London following the London 2012 Games.
The government is believed to have done a deal with the Olympic Park Legacy Company which will see parliamentarians use the stadium in a ground-share with West Ham football club for free.
A senior parliamentary source told us that as West Ham would only be using the stadium at weekends it made perfect sense to take it over during the week.
As well as saving the taxpayer millions of pounds, the high ranking civil servant also said the move made practical sense.
"Despite the planned cut in the number of MPs from 650 to 600, the House of Commons is still be too small to fit them all in," they said.
"With a capacity of 80,000 the Olympic Stadium will have plenty of room for both MPs and peers."
The money raised from the sell-off of the Palace of Westminster will be used to bring down the budget deficit.
Questioned about the practicalities of having parliamentarians debate each other from opposite ends of the huge new stadium the high ranking civil servant said:
"They don't really listen to each other anyway so it won't make much difference."
The extra space will also mean elderly peers will be able to fold down three or more seats to lie on if they need a nap.
And the Speaker's office is believed to be especially pleased, as John Bercow has been given permission to use the tannoy to bring the stadium to order.
Under the plans MPs will be required to complete a full lap of the Olympic track before crossing the finish line in order to vote.
MPs and peers are also expected to be billeted in the athletes' village to appease continued public anger at the expenses scandal.
Although MPs husbands and wives are known to be unhappy at the decision as athletes villages are known to be a hive of sexual activity.
Article Comments
You might have had me except for the missing apostrophe after athletes' - the real Dods would never make such an error
Iain Corby
1st Apr 2011 at 11:11 am
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