Sport and the 2012 Olympics Legacy

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

If the people of east London felt that there had been such an enormous success due to the hon. Gentleman’s antics in the Mayor’s office there would probably have been more people voting Conservative in the east end of London, whereas I note there are quite a lot of Members sitting around me on the Labour Benches representing the east end of London. I note, and the Secretary of State should note, that the hon. Gentleman agreed with my call for the Government to publish all the details of the deal with West Ham.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The Education Committee visited east London as part of its inquiry into the Olympic legacy for school sport in 2013, and we warned the Government then of the lack of legacy and the fall in participation in physical activity generally. In their response, the Government acknowledged that, yet we have still seen a failure. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is worrying for everyone in this country that the Government chose to ignore the advice they were given by the Committee and their own comments on that Committee’s report?

[Chris Bryant]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. He, too, is mystic, as that is a point I am coming on to.

There has been this signal failure because, immediately on coming into office in 2010, the coalition abandoned the target on getting more people active. They scrapped the free swimming fund, putting local authorities under real pressure. They sold off school playing fields and they scrapped ring-fenced funding for sports school partnerships, as my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) mentioned. They abandoned all targets for PE and sport in school. They have had four Secretaries of State in five years, and three sports Ministers all peddling their own preoccupations, rather than laying out a clear 10-year strategy for sports and activity. Their lazy, laissez-faire, hands-off attitude to sports has simply wasted our Olympic legacy.

Frankly, all that is very Conservative. We should remember that Mrs Thatcher did not close only the mines; she closed all the lidos in London as well. It is a fundamental principle of the Tories. How do I know that all this is the fault of the Government? Because the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport told us so herself. She said the other day:

“Government is in part to blame in that we have got a sport strategy that is very much out of date”.

Five years of your Government, seven years of the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip as Mayor—it is all your fault. They have had plenty of warnings, too, as my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) said. The Education Committee report of 2013 was absolutely explicit:

“There is clear evidence that the ending of the school sport partnerships funding has had a negative impact”.

It continued:

“School sport is too important to rely on occasional efforts at pump-priming”.

Its starkest warning of all was:

“We believe that the opportunity to realise a London 2012 legacy for school sports has not yet been lost”.

It said that in 2013. Well, it has now been lost because that warning was ignored.

The Secretary of State used to chair the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Even that Committee warned last year:

“We are very concerned about the lack of communication and co-operation between Government departments, which we think presents a serious obstacle to the DCMS in its attempts to deliver the Olympic legacy.”

This week, in national school sports week, the Youth Sport Trust has said that we are at a “critical crossroads” where

“action is needed now to modernise the approach to PE and school sport”.