Tessa Jowell has warned that the government is at risk of failing to fulfill one of the promises of the Olympic legacies – to transform school sport.
Writing for the Huffington Post, the shadow Olympics minister said the failure to effectively organise school sport had put “our second major legacy promise” at risk.
And she defended her party’s record on school sport, after British Olympic Association chair Lord Colin Moynihan said there had been six years of “missed opportunities” to improve school sports.
Jowell writes that Moynihan is wrong to suggest the Labour government had not pushed for more participation in sport.
“From 2002-2010 Labour invested year-on-year in sport in primary and secondary schools with a first stage guarantee that children would play 2 hours of sport a week, rising to 5 hours a week by 2012," she says.
"In 2003 only an estimated 44% of all 5-16 year olds participated in two hours of curriculum PE and Sport a week.
“After Labour introduced a universal target of two hours of PE and Sport for every young person, participation rates increased to 90% in 2009.
She adds: "We were also on track to achieve our more stretching target of ensuring 60% of all 5-16 year olds were participating in at least 5 hours of sport per week.”