Boris calls 
for two 
hours of 
sport a day in schools

Amid criticism of the Government’s decision to scrap the two-hours-a-week compulsory target, the Mayor of London said widening participation in sport after the Games was of “profound” importance.

He said ministers “totally understand” the public’s renewed appetite for sport and the social and economic advantages it could bring.

Asked about the two-hours-a-week target, he said: “I would like to see two hours a day.”

The mayor said there were already efforts in London to increase children’s participation in sport, adding: “I would like to see a much more thorough-going effort. I think we must build on the achievements of these Games.

“People are signing up for sporting activities of all kinds, they are enrolling, they are involved.”

He said he would like to see Team London volunteers, who have already been CRB-checked, “mobilised” after the Games to “train kids up” in sports.

“I think the Government totally understands people’s appetite for this, they can see the benefits of sport and what it does for young people. I think they understand very, very clearly the social and economic advantages,” he said.

“I would like to see, frankly, the kind of regime I used to enjoy – compulsory two hours sport every day... I’ve no doubt that is the sort of thing that would be wonderful for kids across this country.”

Mr Johnson also suggested that the Olympics could come back to London again within the next two decades.

At a press conference on the future of the Stratford site, to be called the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the Games, he said it would host international competitions in rugby, athletics, hockey and diving over the coming 
years.

“An endless, endless series of global sporting events coming, and quite rightly – and why not the Olympics, again?

“We have made an unanswerable case for hosting the Olympics again in the next 20 years.”

Prime Minister David Cameron joked earlier that London could host the Olympics “every year”.

“I was sitting next to Boris the other night and we were joking that may be we should have an annual Olympics. We’ve got all the stuff here now and we do it really well; let’s do it every year,” he said in an interview with Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2.