{"id":589418,"date":"2026-05-17T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T19:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/589418\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T19:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T19:17:08","slug":"london-mayor-criticises-plans-for-north-of-england-bid-to-host-olympics-north-of-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/589418\/","title":{"rendered":"London mayor criticises plans for north of England bid to host Olympics | North of England"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mayor of London has criticised plans to explore a bid for the north of England<\/a> to host the Olympics, saying that excluding London would be a \u201cmissed opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ministers have commissioned an assessment by UK Sport which could inform a bid for the international sporting event in the 2040s. If the campaign were successful, it would be the first time the Olympic Games<\/a> and Paralympics were hosted in Britain since London 2012.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan<\/a> said: \u201cLondon is the sporting capital of the world and the mayor has openly expressed his ambition for the capital to be part of a future Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

The London Aquatics Centre at Stratford. Using London\u2019s existing facilities \u2018would help deliver the greenest and most sustainable Games\u2019, said the mayor\u2019s office. Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cSadiq believes that a potential country-wide bid, using all the assets we have in the UK, including the publicly owned London<\/a> Stadium, would deliver the very best possible Olympics.
\u201cUsing London\u2019s existing world-class infrastructure would help deliver the greenest and most sustainable Games, as well as unlocking huge economic growth both here in London and around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot including the capital in an Olympics bid would be a missed opportunity, and mean our country fails to unleash the full benefits of a UK-wide games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strategic assessment will examine the costs, the socioeconomic benefits to the north, and the bid\u2019s chance of success.<\/p>\n

The plans were welcomed by two ministers whose constituencies are in the north: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary and Wigan MP, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey.<\/p>\n

Rachel Reeves pointed to regeneration plans for the Elland Road stadium, home to Leeds United, as part of the agenda for the north of England. Photograph: Lee Keuneke\/Every Second Media\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Nandy said: \u201cLondon 2012 showed what the Olympics can do for our country. It inspired a generation through sport, attracted huge investment and showed the best of Britain to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut while the north of England has driven so much sporting excellence, no matter the talent we produce, the sporting moments we create, and the world-class events we attract, for too long we have been told the Olympics is simply too big and too important to be hosted in the north.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot any more. It\u2019s time the Olympics came north and we showed what we can offer to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reeves said Britain\u2019s sporting prowess was \u201crecognised and respected around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we are determined to capitalise on to breathe life into our communities and build a stronger and more secure economy,\u201d the chancellor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re throwing our full support behind bringing the Games back home which will boost our northern growth corridor. It\u2019s also why we\u2019re backing stadium regeneration plans, like at Elland Road, to deliver new homes, business opportunities and public spaces in Leeds and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opening ceremony for the London 2012 Games. \u2018London 2012 showed what the Olympics can do for our country,\u2019 said Lisa Nandy. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The groundwork for a potential Olympics bid comes as the government has laid out a series of recent measures to support major sporting events.<\/p>\n

This includes appointing the Labour peer Lord McConnell as a ministerial adviser on soft power and major events, given the former Scottish first minister\u2019s experience in campaigning to take the Commonwealth Games to Glasgow in 2014.<\/p>\n

The government also introduced a sporting events bill to parliament, aimed at making it easier to bid for major sporting events.<\/p>\n

Boris Johnson, Khan\u2019s predecessor, was the mayor of London during the 2012 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles will host the next summer Games in July 2028 for the third time.<\/p>\n

London has also hosted the summer Games three times (1908, 1948 and 2012), as has Paris (1900, 1924 and 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor of London has criticised plans to explore a bid for the north of England to host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-589418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}