Access to sport must match ambition of disabled children, says Starmer

The Prime Minister visited the Team GB preparation camp as the Paralympic Games got under way in Paris on Thursday.

Sir Keir Starmer met Paralympic athletes preparing for the Paris games, including shotputter Funmi Oduwaiye (Justin Tallis/PA) (PA Wire)

Disabled children’s access to sport needs to improve to “match their ambition”, the Prime Minister has said, as the Paralympic Games get under way.

During a visit to Team GB’s preparation camp in Paris, Sir Keir Starmer said obstacles to children taking part in sport and PE lessons were “unacceptable”, and he was “determined” to see that change.

Speaking to Channel 4 news on Thursday, he said: “The way I would put it is this, there will be young people and children who are going to be watching over the next few days the Paralympics, children with disabilities, and they are going to get that spark.

“They are going to begin to think, that could be me, and they will have that ambition.

“We have to match that ambition by making sure they have access to the sport that they need. I am absolutely determined that we will do that.”

Sir Keir’s visit to the camp in the suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye followed his appearance at the Paralympic opening ceremony on Wednesday at the end of a day of diplomatic meetings in Berlin.

The Prime Minister spoke to coaches and athletes at the training ground, including Aled Davies, a three-time Paralympic gold medal winner, who demonstrated his shotput technique.

The Prime Minister also condemned the experience of Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who was forced to crawl off a train at London King’s Cross on Monday as there was no-one at the station to help her.

He said her experience was “disgraceful” and “unacceptable”, and praised Baroness Grey-Thompson for highlighting it.

He said: “I’m glad she spoke out because I know from that one example there are many, many other examples of people with disabilities have not been able to access transport or other facilities, frankly.

“We’ve got to stop that, and it seems to me pretty basic that if you’re running a train, in this particular example, you’ve got to have the facilities for ensuring that people with disabilities can get on or off the train, otherwise you shouldn’t be running the train.”

With the new Government poised to bring the railways back into public ownership over the coming years, Sir Keir said improving access for disabled people would be “in our sights”.

But he added he did not want to wait that long, saying it should be a “basic requirement” for train operators to provide access for disabled passengers.