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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor

Fire could ‘burn down’ UK parliament and asbestos is rife, surveys show

Peter Hain John Gardiner Lords
The Commons, Lords and Big Ben
Hain said fire ‘could erupt at any time’ and parliament should be ‘decanted, renewed and restored’. Photograph: Geza Kurka/Alamy

More than 1,000 incidents of asbestos have been discovered in parliament and at least 44 fires have broken out over the past decade, figures show.

The details of the prevalence of the toxic material in the parliament buildings were released to the Labour peer and former cabinet minister Peter Hain, who has repeatedly warned that parliament faces the possibility of a Notre Dame-style inferno if restoration work is not sped up.

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