Football
ESPN staff 9y

Labour calls for West Ham Olympic stadium deal to be made public

A Labour politician has urged the UK government to publish the full details of West Ham's deal to move into London's Olympic Stadium.

Shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant labelled the move a "fiasco," citing ballooning costs to the taxpayer for the £272 million redevelopment.

"This has the feel of a fiasco cooked up somewhere between the Mayor's Office, DCMS [Departure for Culture, Media and Sport] and the Treasury," Bryant said, according to the BBC.

"Which is why, in the interests of transparency, I urge the government to publish the full details of West Ham's secret deal as a matter of urgency."

London Mayor and Conservative MP Boris Johnson agreed with Bryant, but blamed the previous Labour government for the spiralling costs.

"It was the Treasury under Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown who decided to go ahead with a stadium that was completely unsuitable for the purpose," Johnson said.

The Hammers have to pay a contribution of some £15 million to the redevelopment, but their annual rent, reported to be £2.5 million on a 99-year lease, has not been revealed.

On Wednesday, former Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn also called for details of the West Ham deal to be made public.

Hearn, who had previously fought for Orient to move into the Olympic Stadium, said: "Who is it confidential from? I can't see any reason whatsoever why it should be secret.

"The actual deal West Ham have got is still confidential, and our current mayor of London is refusing to reveal details.

"As a taxpayer, I find that quite confusing. When people spend my money, I rather like to know what it's been spent on.

"In the absence of that information, we can only speculate that it is a deal so beneficial to West Ham that it becomes questionable in its own right."

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