Jowell Wrong to Reveal Olympic Bill, Says Mayor

The divisions over the London 2012 Olympics intensified yesterday after the mayor of London accused Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, of making a mistake by revealing the £900m rise in the budget for the games.

Ken Livingstone said Ms Jowell had run the risk of "alarming" Londoners by telling MPs that costs on the project had already soared by 40% and that she should have waited until early next year when the revised budget would be clearer.

Ms Jowell said she had a responsibility to report to parliament and her officials were dismissing the disagreement as media frenzy that would be forgotten in 24 hours. Mr Livingstone, interviewed on London's LBC Radio, said: "What Tessa did yesterday, I think she made a mistake. We will have completely reworked the budget in the spring."

Ms Jowell told MPs on Tuesday that the official budget for building the games' venues and infrastructure was £3.3bn, a figure which excludes regeneration. Opponents have warned the final cost could soar beyond £8bn.

Mr Livingstone, pressing for more funding for regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley, said: "The mistake was being drawn by the committee ... about what costs have gone up, without counter-balancing things that have come down."

Tony Blair, speaking at a Downing Street reception attended by the mayor, said: "I was just saying to Ken Livingstone that we were right in predicting that if we won the Olympics then everyone would say 'that's fantastic' and then you'd have six years of everyone complaining.