Sport: Team GB and ParalympicsGB

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I echo the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) about repetition when speaking this late in a debate; I am aware that I am probably the only thing standing between hon. Members and trains back to constituencies, so I will try not to be long-winded. I am grateful for this debate and to those who spoke; if oracy were an Olympic sport, many of our maiden speakers today would be medallists and, as with most sports, I would be grateful just to take part.

Across this House, people are rightly proud of the achievements of our great British Olympians. I am proud particularly of the consistency of our performance in the Paralympics, because it says something about who we are as a nation. I refer not to Governments of either colour, but to the spirit of the British people.

However, it is important that we do not allow our celebrations of British sporting success at an elite level to conceal the wide inequalities of access to sport and physical activity. One third of Team GB’s medallists went to private schools. I do not mean to disparage them—only sheer hard work and perseverance could lead them to achieve what they did—but when privately educated young people are four times more likely than children in the state sector to get an Olympic medal, we have to ask: what are we doing to ensure that all young people have the opportunities and support to participate and achieve in sports?

Almost half the 1,400 member schools of the Independent Schools Council have their own swimming pools, 759 have astroturf pitches, and nearly 100 offer rowing on their own lakes and rivers. Meanwhile, in the state sector, 223 school playing fields were sold off between 2010 and 2020. As others have already noted, the Department for Education reports that there were 41,000 fewer hours of PE taught in the 2023-24 academic year compared with 2011-12. That has led to a situation in which fewer than half of children from less affluent backgrounds are meeting the chief medical officer’s guideline of 60 minutes of physical activity a day. I understand that there are pressures on public finances, but mark my words: any savings that we make now by failing to deliver improvements in school and community sports will cost us in the future through increases in childhood obesity and diabetes, which will add to future NHS bills.

We are heading in the wrong direction. The Conservative and Lib Dem-controlled Durham county council—it was under Labour control until 2021—has cancelled and delayed upgrades to leisure facilities. The town of Crook, which has a population of 10,000 people, lost its swimming baths over a decade ago, and several attempts since to bring them back have ended only in disappointment. It is not just young people who are affected. I remember vividly a conversation I had while canvassing; an older woman in her 80s told me of her sorrow at the closure of the swimming baths, and of having to take two buses—an hour and a half’s round trip—to where I live, in Bishop Auckland, for the nearest swimming pool. That has meant that she no longer goes. She is missing out not only on physical activity but on interaction with her friends; she said it was the thing in the week that she had most looked forward to.

Sport is therefore not just about physical health, but about loneliness and isolation. In schools, it is also about the intrinsic curriculum.

I was not blessed with great physical co-ordination, but I will always be grateful to my PE teacher, Mr Brown, who did not allow me to use that or my asthma as an excuse. He got me on the running track, told me to push myself, and put me in the school athletics team. As many do, I learned through sports how to push myself, how to strive for a personal best, how to play fair, how to work as a team, and how to be magnanimous in the very occasional victory and frequently humble in defeat. I learned that sport brings people together and is great fun.

Finally, I will focus on the mental health benefits of sport. Today is World Mental Health Day. I recently met ManHealth, a group of men in my constituency who get together on a Thursday night. Perhaps in order to break down the stigma of mental health, I shared my own experience of struggling with depression and anxiety—including in the time since I joined this place—which can often be hidden with a suit and a smile. One of the young men asked to see me afterwards. He had grown up in the care system, and talked to me about his struggles with anger, temper management and in feeling loved and accepted. He felt acceptance and self-esteem through playing rugby, and he is going to try out for a team—I will not reveal which team for the sake of protecting his identity. I was incredibly impressed by him and his candour.

Several of my colleagues have made excellent recommendations today that do not need repeating, but I appeal to colleagues across the House not just to pay lip service on this. My local authority has faced cuts of 60% to its central Government funding, and the chief executive told me recently that we are in the territory of closing libraries and leisure centres, so we cannot just pay lip service. There is no development without human development. We should be striving to make Britain the most active nation on earth over the next decade, and end that decline.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Before I call the Front Benchers, may I pass on the congratulations of the whole House to the constituent of the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Alan Gemmell), Kayleigh Haggo, on her wedding day? It is probably an adequate excuse not to be watching the speech of her newly elected Member of Parliament. With the leave of the House, I call Louie French.