Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 15th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The Leader of the House is never impertinent, and I can tell him and the House that nothing would more readily warm the cockles of my heart than being in the Chair for the debate.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

For understandable reasons, the Leader of the House may not be aware of the growing international concern about the health of democracy in the Maldives. Opposition Members of Parliament there have been arrested, the judiciary are on strike and the army has been deployed on the streets of the capital. Will he speak to colleagues in the Foreign Office and invite them to make a statement—written or otherwise—on what they are doing to encourage a return to proper democratic processes in the Maldives?

[Sir George Young]

The hon. Gentleman makes a serious point about what is happening in the Maldives. I will communicate with the Foreign Secretary and see whether there is any way he can communicate to the House the action that the Government are taking in response the serious concerns that he expresses.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

The hon. Gentleman is a distinguished historian who recently won an important history prize. This is an important issue which we are watching very closely, and I should be delighted to meet him to discuss it.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

8. What steps he is taking to maximise the sporting legacy of the London 2012 Olympics.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

We have restored lottery funding to 20% of good causes money for sport, which will be of enormous benefit to community sports projects and the encouragement of competitive sport in schools.

[Mr Thomas]

Given that the Olympic stadium was built in substantial part with the taxes of Londoners, can the Secretary of State assure me that as part of negotiations with any London premiership team over its future use, as a key part of the sporting legacy of the Olympics, he will ensure that a representative of the football supporters trust will be on the board of any such team using the stadium in the future?

[Mr Hunt]

We are strongly in favour of supporters’ trusts being set up and represented on the boards of football teams, and of the presence of a football element in the legacy of the 2012 stadium. Most of all, however, we want to ensure that there is a sporting legacy that touches every school in the country, whether or not it is within travelling distance of the big Olympic venues.