Ministers now ready to consider putting up funding

The bid organisers who successfully secured the Grand Depart for the region – ahead of a string of other high-profile bidders from across Europe – have repeatedly complained they have received no public funding whatsoever so far.

By contrast, a failed rival bid from Scotland received finance from Scottish tourism agency Visit Scotland – as well as the public backing of national bodies Visit Britain and UK Sport.

Yorkshire MPs have made demands in recent weeks that the Government now gets fully behind the event, which is expected to bring in upwards of £100m to the regional economy.

Ministers, however, have insisted any funding decision rests with bosses at UK Sport.

But speaking yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister said: “If the organisers of the ‘Tour de Yorkshire’ have got a specific and worked-up idea of where they think central Government money is indispensable to make it a success, of course we’ll look at it.

“At the moment, we haven’t yet a seen a specific [plan saying] ‘this is what we need for those purposes, it has to come from central Government, it can’t come from other sources’.

“But of course we’ll look at that, because we want it to be a success. I think it’s a question of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the organisers sitting down and comparing notes.”