John Major: Taking Lottery cash away from grassroots sports 'will limit Olympic success'

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Sir John Major has accused Labour of risking future Olympic success by diverting billions of pounds of lottery cash into pet Government projects.

The former Tory Prime Minister, who founded the National Lottery in the 1990s, warned that ‘lottery larceny’ meant billions had been channelled away from his original good causes - sports, arts projects, heritage and the voluntary sector - to help meet health, education and transport pledges.

Sir John said it was clear that sports organisations were suffering budget cuts because the lottery was not being used as intended.

He accused ministers of diverting a ‘good deal’ of money into other expenditures and insisted that sports funding should be guaranteed by all future governments to ensure continuing success.

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell has insisted that there will be no extra money beyond the £9.325billion already allocated to the 2012 London Games.

Any overspends on Olympic projects would be balanced by scaling back spending in other areas, she said.

The reason that the victory parade for the British Olympic team will be held on a weekday is to coincide with a reception being held by the Queen.

Concern had been raised that fans who wanted to travel to London and congratulate the Beijing team, might not be able to make it on a Thursday.

But Mayor Boris Johnson said the date of October 16 was chosen because all the athletes were in the capital to meet the Queen and it ‘made sense’ to have the parade
that day too.

The route is yet to be finalised but is likely to finish at Trafalgar Square before going on to Buckingham Palace. The parade will also include athletes from the Paralympics, which runs from September 6-17.

During the reception, it is thought the athletes will be served informal drinks and canapes in the palace, where they will meet the Queen.

A similar reception was held for the Olympic team who returned from the Athens Games in 2004, although they were not accorded a victory parade.