Labour 'hijacking' Olympic win

[Fiona]

The Liberal Democrats have today condemned Labour for taking credit for winning the 2012 Olympics in their campaign material for Thursday's local elections.

They claim the use of crowds celebrating the Olympics, in their party election broadcast, to be shown tonight, implies Labour were solely responsible for the win.

Culture spokesman Don Foster said the move was "outrageous" – particularly since the international Olympic committee (IOC) praised the London bid for having support from across the political spectrum.

"It is absolutely outrageous that Labour seeks to imply credit for London winning the Olympics. All the main political parties supported the bid and worked together to make it a success," he declared.

"The International Olympic committee has already praised the London bid for its cross-party collaboration; they will be surprised to now see the successful bid used in a party political broadcast.

"I hope that Labour will make it absolutely clear that the bid was the product of hard work by all the parties, and not solely their pet project."

However, a spokesman for the Labour party rejected the suggestion that using the Olympics was somehow unfair.

"The Labour party election broadcast emphasises a range of positive things that have happened in Britain over the last nine years, of which winning the London Olympics is one," he told politics.co.uk.

The battle between the main political parties is heating up ahead of Thursday's local elections, when the Lib Dems are widely expected to benefit from a dip in support for Labour, particularly in London.

politics co.uk

[richard]

Labour's Party Political Broadcast politicises Olympics

Hugh Robertson, Shadow Minister for Sport, has condemned Labour's decision to use pictures of the celebrations on winning the Olympic bid as part of its Party Political Broadcast tonight as a "desperate act of party politics". Commenting on, Hugh Robertson said:

"Tessa Jowell has undermined cross-party support for the Olympics in a desperate attempt to shore up Labour's dismal election campaign. Clearly, the Olympics would not have come to London had there not been genuine support from across the political spectrum. I was in the team in Singapore, and Michael Howard addressed the IOC visiting committee to ensure that it knew every political party was backing the bid.

"We have a long way to go before 2012 is delivered on time and to budget, and to put at risk that consensus is extremely short-sighted. It smacks of desperation from Tessa Jowell that she is prepared to risk all of this in attempt to avoid meltdown for her London election campaign on Thursday."

Hugh Robertson MP
02/05/2006


Source
conservatives.com

Image: Hugh Robertson MP - Member of Parliament for Faversham & Mid Kent. Shadow Minister for Sport and the Olympics