No funding shortfall says Nadine Dorries as she tours Commonwealth Games pool

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries visited the site in Smethwick for a closer look at the site that will host the swimming and diving events and dismissed claims of a £25 million Games funding shortfall.

She also took the opportunity to give her backing to the Prime Minister, accusing detractors of him as being attention-seekers.

Ms Dorries was joined on her visit to the centre, off Queen’s Road, by Paralympic swimming sensation Ellie Simmonds, from Aldridge and Sandwell Council leader Councillor Kerrie Carmichael.

The three toured the huge site where the Olympic-sized 12-lane pool is currently being filled with the equivalent of 28,500 bath-tubs full of water ahead of the Games, which kick off on July 28.

There is also a 16ft deep diving pool below the towering high dive platform that dominates one end of the centre with thousands of seats around the edge.

And builders are busy constructing a warm-up pool too.

Ms Dorries said the work was all on track and dismissed a report from Birmingham City Council’s resource overview and scrutiny committee that the games were facing a £25m shortfall in funding.

She said: “There’s £778m going into this project, with three quarters of it coming from the Government and 25 percent from the council, and this is being met through funding from other partners, so there is no shortfall.”

Meanwhile the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire offered her backing to the PM saying: “Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister who has delivered the biggest majority since the days of Margaret Thatcher and who has brought us through a pandemic.

“He’s given us more boosters, testing, antivirals and people in work than there were at the beginning of the pandemic and is someone with a fantastic record of achievement since he became Prime Minister. There are people who have been constant critics of him, despite the fact he has delivered for Britain during the pandemic and you can see how well we have done as a country during a global pandemic.

“I’m disappointed to hear about accusations of blackmailing MPs from William Wragg, who has been a long-term critic of the Prime Minister, and I think it is just nonsense as I have been an MP for 17 years and think it is all attention-seeking behaviour.”

Nine-time Paralympic gold medallist Ellie meanwhile was also left marvelling at the new aquatics centre. She said: “It’s an amazing place and what I’m pleased about is the fact that the number of people who are going to be employed here and the fact that this is a multicultural area and there will be for the first time ever areas for just women to swim in is just amazing.

“It’s an important legacy going forward as well for Sandwell, not just in terms of investment in jobs, but for opportunities in the local community and it just shows that this is levelling up in action.”

She said: “I am so excited about the games and my family have all registered for volunteering and I’ve gone back into the ballot for tickets.

“It’s a whole thing and Birmingham is an amazing city for me as, Being born in Walsall, it’s home in a sense and it’s great that a massive sporting event like the Commonwealth Games is happening in Birmingham.

“This building brings so much to the legacy with having big sporting events in the future, but also to the general public and other sports to have access to swimming as a life skill and to have lessons here.”

Councillor Kerrie Carmichael said: “The legacy is going to be absolutely brilliant, with new cycle lanes and a dance studio and other things that we’ve not had here before.

“Everyone’s just anticipating a great time at the games and excited about it, including our MP John Spellar, who is despearate to come in here and have a proper look around.”