Labour Blamed for Exploiting London Olympics

The uneasy Olympic truce between the major political parties is on the verge of breaking down, with both Labour and the Conservatives seeking to make political capital from the London 2012 bid.

The Labour Party exploited the Olympics repeatedly in its local election campaign, which like the London 2012 bid was led at government level by Tessa Jowell. The culture secretary angered the Tories by citing the bid in a campaign email, a speech and a party election broadcast on the eve of the poll. But London's campaign for Olympic votes was more successful than Labour's election campaign, which saw it fall behind the Tories and Lib Dems on share of the vote.

The Tories see Labour's attempt to appropriate the games as a betrayal of the cross-party consensus whereby the shadow sports minister Hugh Robertson attended the Singapore vote last year and the Olympic bill passed quickly through parliament. Yesterday Jowell's shadow Hugo Swire said he was "furious" about her abuse of goodwill and he published a letter to her in which he said cross-party cooperation was being seriously undermined.

The Conservatives are not above indulging in Olympic points-scoring either. With yesterday's protests they have publicly complained about the issue twice in a week.

Bill's amazing golf score

Bill Clinton tested his game at the birthplace of the Open Championship last week, taking on three of his security guards at Prestwick. The former president, known as President Mulligan for his creative scoring, was in Scotland for a whistle-stop speaking engagement. He claimed to have carded an 82 on the fiendish links course, the same score he wrote down during a round in which a New York Times reporter, who played with Clinton, counted 200 shots.

Spurs chiefs: You're fired

Manchester United may have dismissed internet gaming firm Mansion as an inappropriate shirt sponsor, but Tottenham Hotspur were in no position to object to the firm's offer of a £34m deal, confirmed yesterday. Spurs executive director Paul Kemsley, a friend of Sir Alan Sugar who made a cameo appearance in The Apprentice, is developing an internet fantasy football game that will offer a £1m prize, and co-owns a racehorse with Harry Redknapp. Kemsley is thought to have been the driving force behind the club's unsuccessful attempt to have its final league fixture against West Ham replayed after eight players went down with a virus on the morning of the game. Having seen the team make great strides on the field, there are concerns that the doomed action has lowered the club's reputation in Premiership circles.

Banking on football

The scale of the Premier League's new TV deal is demonstrated by the size of the deposit paid last week by broadcasters Sky and the Irish company Setanta to secure their contracts. The pair transferred £51m to the Premier League's bank account last Thursday as a 3% down-payment on the £1.7bn deal. The balance is payable in six large instalments over the course of the three-year contract that ends in 2010.

FA's Portuguese junket

The Football League summer meeting looks set to be the best attended in years after it arranged to host its annual meeting in Albufeira on the Algarve, scene of riots involving England fans during Euro 2004. Thanks to its deal with the travel agent Thomas Cook the league is able to take all 76 club chairmen to Portugal where they have much to consider, not least adopting a tough code of conduct relating to the activities of agents. Chairman, former Tory party chairman, Lord Mawhinney has pushed hard for reform this season and will ask for it to go beyond existing guidelines set by the world governing body, Fifa. Meanwhile the FL was yesterday confirmed as the sport of choice of the home improvement industry with Johnstone's Paint joining DIY firm Wickes on the sponsorship roster. From next season the company will be title sponsor of the Football League Trophy, which was formerly known as the LDV Vans Trophy.