Sir Craig Reedie, key London 2012 Olympics figure and former BOA chair, dies aged 84
Sir Craig Reedie, a giant of the Olympic movement, who served as chair of the British Olympic Association for more than a decade and was instrumental in bringing the Games to London in 2012, has died at the age of 84.Tributes have poured in for the Scots-born Reedie, who was also president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) when Russia was found guilty of state-sponsored doping across “a vast majority” of winter and summer sports, including at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.During this tumultuous period, Reedie and Wada recommended that Russia be banned from the 2016 Rio Games – a call that was ultimately rejected by the International Olympic Committee.Reedie was vice-president of the IOC during part of his Wada tenure and a former badminton competitor who led the campaign for its Olympic inclusion starting at Barcelona ‘92.Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president, who led the organising committee for the London Games on whose board Reedie sat, said: “I am devastated for his family.
Craig was my mentor, wise counsel, passionate advisor, and great friend.He was the distinguished elder statesman with a reservoir of Olympic knowledge and experience which he shared willingly and to great effect.“Without Craig and his leadership of the British Olympic Association, we may never have won the right to host London 2012.Craig was a sportsman at heart, but he had the mind and tenacity of a politician.He was equal parts opinionated, wise, canny, and, most of all, loyal to those who legitimately wanted to serve sport.
The epitome of a gentleman,”Reedie represented Great Britain in badminton in the 1960s before venturing into sports administration, beginning with the Scottish Badminton Union,In 1981 he was elected International Badminton Federation president, becoming BOA chair in 1992 and joining the IOC two years later,He served as vice-president on the IOC from 2012 to 2016, a period which overlapped with his presidency of Wada,Dame Katherine Grainger, the current BOA chair, praised his fight against doping and his support for the Olympic movement and its competitors.
“If you have worked in Olympic sport, then it’s highly likely that you would have known Sir Craig Reedie,” Grainger said,“How lucky we all were,“Whether he was rubbing shoulders with the higher echelons of the IOC membership, or making his way around the British Olympic Association’s offices to chat with staff members, he was never short of a word of encouragement, or some gentle wise counsel,“Few knew the Olympic movement better and fewer still served it with such distinction,His dedicated service to the BOA, to the IOC and to Wada is notable.
“He always fought hard for Olympic sport, and fought harder still for clean sport.In doing so he saw the good and, inevitably, the bad of our sporting system.It was the measure of Craig that it never diminished his love of sport and the Olympic movement in particular.“Craig awarded me some of my Olympic medals, so I had the privilege of being consoled and congratulated by him, and knowing he understood exactly what those moments meant.“I only hope Lady Rosemary and family can be comforted by the warmth and affection with which we will hold Sir Craig’s memory by.
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Relationship with Trump may be beyond repair, Keir Starmer told
Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Donald Trump may be beyond repair after the US president derided the prime minister for consulting his team about military decisions, in a mocking impersonation.In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to imitate Starmer in a weak voice during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, and said the UK was “not our best” ally.The episode is Trump’s latest broadside at Starmer and the UK’s “old” aircraft carriers after the prime minister declined to let the US use British military bases for its initial strikes on Iran.Following the latest attack on Starmer, diplomatic and political figures said he was right to brush off the criticism but added that the relationship was very damaged and he would need to redouble efforts to built international relations elsewhere.The US president said the UK “should be our best” ally but had not been during the Iran war, accusing Starmer of prevaricating over sending aircraft carriers
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Labour challenges Farage over cost of private jet trip to Maldives
Labour has queried Nigel Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to a billionaire donor cost as little as £25,000 as the Reform leader attempted to reach the Chagos Islands.Farage initially recorded his two-day trip to the Maldives as costing £12,500 funded by Thailand-based Reform megadonor Christopher Harborne, before upgrading this to £25,000 in the latest register of interests.The Guardian reported that ownership of the private jet was linked to Harborne, who has given the party more than £12m.However, Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, wrote to Farage on Thursday arguing that chartering a private jet of a similar size would cost many times more than the sum declared.“According to publicly available flight logs, this was an 11,000-mile round trip, lasting just over 23 hours, using a model of plane that is currently advertised on multiple private jet websites as costing at least $11,500 (£8,500) per hour to charter,” she said
Starmer must call energy summit akin to 2008 crisis response, Labour MP says
Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran.The MP for East Thanet said the impending energy crisis caused by the war was “as big as the financial crash” and required “a response of equal magnitude”. She said the increase in prices would not be temporary or regional, and that “economic pain, falling living standards and social anger create fertile ground for extremist politics”.While she said the government’s convening of 35 countries to discuss the reopening of the strait of Hormuz was a good step, a bigger global response was needed on energy
Drip-feed of Reform UK controversies puts party’s policy drive in shade
It was a week that started with a candid admission from Nigel Farage. When asked if Reform UK’s vetting process was finally up to scratch, the party leader said: “I accept that at the last general election basically there was no vetting really.” He was speaking after the latest of what a senior colleague had described as a “series of abhorrent incidents”.That latest incident had involved a Welsh Senedd candidate, Corey Edwards, who was forced to step down last Friday after a picture of him appearing to do a Nazi salute surfaced online.Yet while Farage went on to tell reporters at a Heathrow press conference on Tuesday that they would find Reform was “doing pretty well now”, just two days later another frontline party member was in hot water
UK politics Q&A, as it happened: Andrew Sparrow answers your questions on Starmer, Reform and more
Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.The NHS is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Nick Candy, the honorary treasurer of Reform UK and a major donor, has sold his mansion in the Chelsea district of London for a reported £275m.Thank you for the questions everone. Happy Easter
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