Jowell: in the driving seat?

The culture secretary has dismissed claims that Gordon Brown will make or break Britain's Olympic bid.

Speaking on the second day of intense debate about the possibility of a London bid for the 2012 games, Tessa Jowell rejected claims that the final decision would be made by the chancellor.

While she conceded that money was essential to the viability of a bid, she insisted that the final decision would be taken by the cabinet as a whole.

"The chancellor will not decide," she said. "The government will decide and the government will decide because right across government there is a passion for sport and an investment in sport - which the chancellor shares."

"But that is very realistically set alongside our commitments to other areas of public service investment as well."

She noted that there would be a "cost for sport... for transport and all our commitments to public service renewal".

"The total cost of staging the games was estimated at £4.5 billion, of which £2.5 billion would have to come from the public purse and the same facilities, apart from an Olympic stadium, could be constructed for around £300 million," said Jowell.

Publishing polling evidence which casts doubts on the wisdom of an Olympic bid at a time when schools and hospitals are in need of investment, the minister warned that voters were not convinced.

"The poll that we commissioned shows some very interesting conclusions," she told the culture, media and sport committee.

"Yes people are overwhelmingly in favour of our making a bid. The numbers fall when people are pressed in committing themselves to that alongside the consequences."

Whilst she said the public supported spending taxpayers' money on an Olympic bid, she warned that voters were against diverting money from pensions, schools and hospitals.

"The public's priorities are very clear indeed," she added. "But nobody should believe that hosting the Olympics would be a free good - that we could just decide to do it as a decision that is divorced from the cost."

Despite her apparent coolness, Jowell dismissed claims that she was "pouring a bath of cold water" over a possible bid.

"The games are affordable. They are affordable if we decide that we are not going to do other things. If we decide to go for it we will go hell for leather to win," she said.