Sport in the UK

Julian Knight Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies]

I feel that my hon. Friend has read the next part of my speech. Participation and a culture of participation within families and communities is absolutely vital. I would be delighted to set out some of my thoughts on that, so let us talk about participation. We are making good progress on getting more people active. We want half a million people to be more regularly active across England by 2020, with at least half of those being women. Over 470,000 more people are already active compared with when we launched the strategy in 2015, but delivering long-term change in habits requires persistence. We know that we need to do more to get and keep people active.

[Julian Knight (Solihull) (Con)]

In the three months that my hon. Friend has been in post she has been an absolute champion for women’s sport and women’s participation in sport, and we welcome that. In that spirit, will she join me in wanting to see women’s T20 cricket at the Birmingham Commonwealth games? It is a fantastic sport and we want to see it there in the west midlands.

[Mims Davies]

My hon. Friend tempts me on that point—he knows it is very tempting and I have recently been hoping to visit his constituency—but that is not fully down to me. However, I have made it very clear that participation, particularly of women, and broadcasting opportunities are absolutely vital, so this is on my radar.