Tessa Jowell’s Formula 1 freebie

One of those who enjoyed Lewis Hamilton's (pictured) gripping triumph in the Formula 1 championship in Sao Paulo on Sunday was Tessa Jowell, Labour's Olympics minister. But why, asks her opposite number on the Lib Dem benches, Don Foster, was she there in the first place, given that F1 is not an Olympic sport? "I think most people will struggle to understand how Tessa Jowell's attendance at the Brazilian Grand Prix will in any way benefit the London Olympics,” said Foster. “While I'm sure it was great fun to see Lewis Hamilton's victory, most of us settled for watching it on TV."

Jowell's visit to the race, along with two government officials, was not originally part of her agreed £10,000, five-day trip to observe sports projects in the country, which, of course, was funded by the British taxpayer. However, when she and her party were offered free tickets to the race by the Brazilian sports minister, Orlando Silva, they jumped at the chance. But this, Foster points out, involved the expense of re-arranging their scheduled flights at the last minute.

Jowell is unrepentant. "Supposing I had been in Sao Paulo with Lewis Hamilton competing and I had declined to go because I didn't want to have such a late night, you [the media] would have written a story about how I had snubbed Lewis Hamilton." She added: "There was no cost involved [in the Grand Prix] because I was in Sao Paulo anyway. To suggest that I am on a junket with tribes of civil servants is a lie."