According to reports, Downing Street said that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has not ruled out a bid to stage the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
A spokesman dismissed a report in The Observer that Blair was concerned that an Olympic bid by London would be too costly and would attract endless negative press coverage.
The Observer had reported that a study by UK Sport had helped dampen Prime Minister Blair’s enthusiasm for the London bid.
The newspaper said Blair and cabinet members had been told a bid campaign “would cost too much and lead to endless negative headlines”.
The cost of bringing the Games to London was first projected at 1.8 billion pounds, but estimates have been increased and range between 2.5 billion and 5.4 billion pounds.
The bid alone will cost about 13 million pounds.
The spokesman said, “there is a rigorous process of assessment in place. It is wrong to say that a decision has been taken. We are not going to preempt that decision and it is important to take time to think things through properly”.
He added, “if major cities like Paris, New York and Moscow do bid for 2012, that would be a tough fight and that has to be a factor in whether London bids. We would be mad to go into a bid unless we had a real chance of winning”.
Simon Clegg, President of the British Olympic Association, said that Blair still felt “burned” by Britain’s failed 2006 World Cup bid, which was awarded to Germany.
Britain’s Sports Minister Richard Caborn dismissed claims that Britain would not bid for the Games, and insisted appraisals are still taking place which would be presented to the cabinet in the new year.
He said, “what we are now going through is an appraisal of going into a bidding process and we shall do that up until the end of January when the cabinet will meet to make a final decision.
