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Tessa Jowell in storm over her trip to Brazilian Grand Prix
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent04.11.08
OLYMPICS minister Tessa Jowell came under attack today for taking a trip to Brazil which included tickets to watch Lewis Hamilton in the Grand Prix at the weekend.
Ms Jowell and two government officials were at the Interlagos circuit to witness Hamilton becoming the youngest Formula One champion at the start of their five-day excursion funded by the British taxpayer.
Ms Jowell was the guest of Brazilian sports minister Orlando Silva. Her private secretary and Nicky Roche, a director at the Government Olympic Executive, re-arranged their flights after the consul general in Brazil secured F1 tickets for them at short notice.
The excursion for three government employees to South America is thought to have cost at least £10,000 and has angered some MPs who say the Olympics minister should be more frugal during tough economic times.
After the race the trio flew to Recife in north-eastern Brazil to observe the "International Inspiration" community sports project, a £9million scheme part funded by the British Government after it pledged during the 2012 bid to help developing countries.
Ms Jowell and her aides will fly to Rio de Janeiro this week to advise executives running the city's bid to stage the 2016 Olympics, before returning to London on Thursday.
In the coming year, Ms Jowell is scheduled to visit two of the other five developing countries benefiting from the International Inspiration programme Azerbaijan and Zambia.
Speaking from Recife last night, MsJowell said she had received the invitation to the Grand Prix from the sports minister last Thursday, well after the other dates on her trip were scheduled. She said she would have been lambasted in the media had she not attended the race despite being in Sao Paulo.
Her political opponents point out, however, that F1 is not an Olympic sport and it would have been more appropriate for the sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe or Culture Secretary Andy Burnham to attend. Ms Jowell said: "Supposing I had been in Sao Paulo with Lewis Hamilton competing and I had declined to go because I didn't want to have such a late night, you would have written a story about how I had snubbed Lewis Hamilton."
She added: "There was no cost involved in (the Grand Prix) because I was in Sao Paulo anyway on my way up here (to Recife). To suggest that I am on a junket with tribes of civil servants is a lie."
Liberal Democrat Olympics spokesman Don Foster said: "This government has become unashamedly profligate with public money. After spending millions of pounds sending hundreds of officials to the Beijing games, ministers should have woken up to the fact that the current economic climate requires some severe belt-tightening.
"I think most people will struggle to understand how Tessa Jowell's attendance at the Brazilian Grand Prix will in any way benefit the London Olympics. While I'm sure it was great fun to see Lewis Hamilton's victory most of us settled for watching it on TV.
"There is a need to ensure that the London Olympics inspires people all across the world but there are hundreds of people at the British Embassy in Brazil who could tell us what progress is being made. With the Olympic legacy still in such doubt the Olympics minister's time would be better served ensuring progress was being made over here."
Reader views (27)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
snort snort her snoot is in the feeder again!!!! It must be getting close to the time when the slaughters van arrives for these oversize porkers!!!
- Ian Makin, Twickenham
Why do we need a "OLYMPICS minister" in anycase.
What does she really do as "OLYMPICS minister" par swanning around at tax payers expense. There's an army or other agencies and personnel all on the Olympic gravy train as it is.
- Alec, West Londn
This is a gross ABUSE AND MISUSE of taxpayers' money --- ESPECIALLY as Hamilton is a UK tax-avoider (lives in Switzerland) who deprives the UK people of many millions of pounds per year that he should be paying in taxes on his astronomical earnings.
- Ruth Badger, Wiltshire, UK
I thought she was fired because of her incompetence before?!
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
Compared to some of her colleagues (eg, Little Hazel Blears, Harriet Harperson, Patricia "my voice is like nails on a blackboard" Hewitt and the ghastly Caroline "I'll say or do anything to get and keep office" Flint), Tessa Jowell comes across as reasonbly pleasant and sensible, but this story still exemplifies how detached our politicians have become from the tax paying public, and how willing the NuLab servants of the people seem to be to take a freebie, first class of course, at every possible opportunity. They, and their hangers on in the public sector, give the impression of being in the game to make and take whatever they can out of it
- Max, london
Typical Elitist Marxists. Jowell is as hypocritical as the rest of New Labour.
- Tangomike, Kensington, London
Soldiers die so Jowell can have a knees up in Brazil, Mandelson can swan around on Russian oligarch yachts, Blair can have his £12 million farewell tour, Prescott can have his 2 jags, country mansions and his secretary in work time and Brown can swan around in the Middle East pretending he has done a deal, which already had been done.
Meanwhile more soldiers die because the socialists don't care about their lives just where there snounts into the next freebie. OINK; OINK;OINK
- Richard K, Nottingham
I have been a member of the Labour Party for over 30 years and it is the behaviour of people like Jowell and Mandelson that ensure my membership is coming to an end.
Whilst their shady dealings ( lets not forget Jowell's husband faces criminal charges in Italy) are no different to the corruption and sleaze in other political parties in the UK, I have always hoped that Labour was different.
If Brown sacks Jowell, I'll have a good reason to remain a member. She is an arrogant, unrepresentative disgrace and must go. She serves no-one but herself.
- Bob Smith, london, UK
Does this really come as a surprise to anyone?
Everyone must know that the Nu-Labour's motto is, "Do as I say, don't do as I do"!
- Scott, London
Wasn't David Cameron on a jolly in a private box to see The Killers last night, at The Royal Albert Hall? I think he likes to embrace freebies every bit as much as the next public representative.
- Thomas Hughes, Baldock, Hertfordshire
Does she really have to come back? Once again she answers the question which has not been put. Who said she was travelling with 'tribes of civil servants'? And then she accuses the reporter of intending to write a totally different story. This woman has been caught bang to rights on many occasions. This is just another example.
- Chuck Unsworth, London
Come, come now. Ms Jowell probably did not claim for a new John Lewis kitchen this year so understandably as a communist supporting politician who believes in equality for all she needs something in compensation as long as the taxpayer continues to pay for it and keep her in the style she has become accustomed.
- Joe, London, UK
Socialists do nothing but put their snouts in the taxpayers trough. It is quite unbelievable how brazen they are and how hypocritical they are. Talk about fat cat bankers what about fat cat socialists redistributing wealth away from all of us so they can line their pockets with freebies and our money. They rob Joe Public of his pension, won't give our soldiers proper body armour, but can spend thousands and thousands on themselves. How many of our soldiers have to die so that Tessa Jowell can go and watch motor racing in Brazil? It is disgusting that the socialists refuse to properly protect our soldiers but feed they greed at every opportunity.
- Richard K, Nottingham
This is immoral. How on earth can these trips be justified. This country desperately needs a champion to stop all of these goverment excesses, NOW not in the future.It seems to me that all of our MPs are either asleep or simply closing their eyes to the abuse of taxpayers money by this goverment.
The next general election cannot come soon anough. The voters of this country MUST remember all of these excesses and vote labour out of office.
- Anthony John Calladine, WESTON SUPERMARE. GREAT BRITAIN.
Recession ??? What recession !!! if you are a member of the Government the "Jollies" continue as normal - roll on the Election.
- Alan, Essex
Take Take Take & Take that's all they do why we have to struggle to survive I cant wait for an election and get rid of these GREEDY people !
- Linda Cliff, London
I wonder how this fits in with keeping our carbon foot print down.Maybe thats why they need a new runway at Heathrow to allow them to take thier free holidays while we sit at home with heating turned down and a exta jumper on.
- Dave Smith, Croydon
I am shocked that such an admirable, nice, morally upstanding person as Tessa Jowell, whom we all trust so much, can be gallivanting all over the world having a great time at my expense.
Say it isn't so.
- Tom In London, London UK
This may not be outright corruption but it certainly corrupts people's view of this Government and it's Ministers
- Watson, London UK
this freebee is not surprising coming from this government.
It almost appears that they know at the next general election thay are going to be eradicated from the face of British politics,that they are grabbing everything they can before the event.
Just like looters after some terrible event!
- Eamonn, Essex,UK
I wonder if the companies that Ms Jowell is "associated" with are still making plenty of money out of the Olympics?
- Frank, Home Counties, England
Milking the gravy train again, is there no stopping these parasites
- Danny, London
There is no such thing as a "frugal" government minister in this Country.
- Wen, Oxfordshire
..Yet again we see more evidence of Gordon Brown's lackies with their snouts well and truly in the trough..
- Joannie, London, England
While Ms Jowell was on a freebie in Brazil, she wasnot doing her best to bankrupt the country in 2012. now that's Value for Money!
- Atropos, Hythe, Kent
Miss Jowell and her officials can of course attend whatever non-Olympic sports events they like. It's just a matter of paying for the flights, tickets and having time off from work. Surely, someone as clever as her realised this?
Like Two-Jag's embarassing taxpayer-funded farewell/hioliday tour of the Caribbean before he left office, hopefully this will be the last we hear of Miss Jowell.
- David H, Aylesbury, Engalnd
Every company I know of is cutting back on travel, and if employees must travel, it must be in economy at the back of the plane. Doubtless the £10k wasted on these three flights was for business class. Can Jowell and her two cronies provide us with the details of the "business" they did at 35,000 feet? Or more likely, can they tell us how much duty free they tucked away on the 12 hour flight and how many films they watched?
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
