Ann Keen Hails England Rugby Team

MP describes beleaguered national squad as 'role models'

Ann Keen MP recently joined the Chancellor, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP for an event in Parliament attended by the Rugby Football Union and the England rugby captain and team.

Ann said, “We have heard some excellent speeches this evening outlining the importance of sport in our communities, to tackle obesity and anti-social behaviour. The England team have been role models on and off the pitch and it has been very interesting to talk with them. Sport features highly in our community and I look forward to continuing my work with local sports groups in the constituency.”

The Chancellor played school rugby and was a talented runner, entering the Scottish Championships. He has become a staunch advocate of increasing the amount of sport that takes place in schools.

He is arguing that the minimum amount of sport in schools should be two hours a week and he would like to see this rise to four hours by 2010. This would mean that most children would be doing some sort of sporting activity at school every day of the week. The Chancellor also wants to see every school offering after school sports and linking up with local clubs to increase the range of activities on offer.

The details of the discussion between the Chancellor and the England Rugby captain have not been disclosed but it can be presumed that like most Scots he is deeply sympathetic to the current plight of English rugby. England's recent narrow win at Twickenham against South Africa avoided the current team registering the highest ever number of consecutive losses in the nation's history.

November 22, 2006