Brown won't go to opening ceremony
Updated on 09 April 2008
Downing Street confirms to Channel 4 News that the prime minister will not be attending the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing in August.
He will be at the closing ceremony but someone else will represent the country at the start of the Games.
Until now Government has side-stepped the question, but will Gordon Brown's non appearance be taken as a snub to the Chinese and having faced calls to boycott the ceremony in recent weeks, why did the prime minister not make his position clear earlier?
As an exclusive Channel 4 News poll reveals 43 per cent of people think he shouldn't go, and only 29 per cent are in favour.
The Channel 4 News poll also reveals that 66 per cent of people believe that the recent protests in London have 'damaged' the Chinese government with 43 per cent stating that this year's torch relay should be discontinued.
Downing Street has told the programme that the prime minister had never intended to go to the opening ceremony and that Mr Brown will be there for the end of the games as leader of the next Olympic host country, despite it being reported in the Chinese press that Mr Brown would be in attendance.
Mr Brown has, until now, never made it clear that he wouldn't be going to the opening ceremony, and has talked about Britain attending the Olympic ceremonies in the plural. When asked directly during the visit of Nicolas Sarkozy two weeks ago if Britain and France should boycott the opening ceremony Mr Brown replied that:
"We will not be boycotting the Olympic Games; Britain will be attending the Olympic Games ceremonies."
Mr. Brown has also made a similar statement during a press conference with Australia's prime minister Kevin Rudd, saying that "the Dalai Lama, who is at the centre of some of this controversy, is saying very clearly that he does not want a boycott of the Olympics. And I think there is a general view that a boycott of the Olympics would not assist this current situation".
But Downing Street has now told Channel 4 News that it would be a waste of taxpayers' money for him to go to both ceremonies.
The Channel 4 News poll, carried out overnight by YouGov, reveals that only 29 per cent of those canvassed believe that Mr Brown should attend the opening ceremony, with 43 per cent stating that he should not with only 6 per cent saying that they don't know. The remainder 'don't mind either way'.
However, 59 per cent of those polled still think that Britain's Olympic athletes should attend despite 47 per cent believing that recent protests when the Olympic torch was carried through London have 'damaged the Olympic brand'.
