COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The Government splashed out nearly £1.2million of taxpayers' money on tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games so ministers and civil servants could watch for free, records have revealed.

While sports fans scrambled to get their hands on the sought-after tickets, coalition ministers were given access to events including athletics, beach volleyball, cycling, diving and boxing.

In total the Government purchased 8,641 tickets for the London Games, at a cost of nearly £1.2million, with 60 seats going to coalition ministers.

Former Treasury minister Lord Sasson received the most expensive ticket among his colleagues when he was handed a £725 seat at the athletics.

He and Scottish Secretary Michael Moore were also given £1,500 tickets for the closing ceremony.

Chancellor George Osborne attended the opening ceremony, as did former chief whip Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary Justine Greening and faith minister Baroness Warsi, with tickets priced at £2012.

Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt was given the most tickets, running up a bill of £605 for watching two cycling events, diving, football and gymnastics

Commons Speaker John Bercow received two seats at the tennis, totalling £145, and a number of backbenchers from across the parties also attended the 2012 Games on Government-funded tickets.

The breakdown, which has been placed on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's website also showed that Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and universities minister David Willetts were given tickets to watch the beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade.

Of the 8,641 tickets purchased, around 4,000, costing £916,000, were paid for and distributed by central Government.

Of the remaining tickets, 2,381 were bought by staff who had worked long-term on the Games or Ambassadors.

Local authorities in London bought up a further 2,020 from the Government and tourism organisation Visit Britain bought 224 of the seats.


The figures released did not include scores of free tickets which were handed to the most senior Cabinet figures, including David Cameron, Nick Clegg by Games organiser LOCOG. They also did not include visits to events which were funded by companies and sponsors.

The bill for Government-hosted receptions ahead of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games came in at £349,153 with some 503 guests attending.

In a written ministerial statement Culture Secretary Maria Miller said: 'All invitations were issued against criteria agreed by the Cabinet Secretary in May 2012.

'These were: encouraging growth, encouraging health and sports participation, encouraging community engagement and volunteering.'

Labour MP John Mann has accused ministers of trying to 'bury bad news' by releasing the details of who received the free tickets during the ongoing Algerian Hostage crisis.

'People will be very cynical about the Government doing this now when everyone is rightly concentrating on what is happening in Algeria,' he told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.