The sports minister Richard Caborn has been ordered to appear before the House of Commons select committee on sport next Tuesday to explain why he tried to offer inducements to the International Association of Athletics Federations to move the 2005 World Championships from London to Sheffield.
"He will be asked to explain what has happened," said Derek Wyatt MP, a member of the committee. "We have got to be more politically aware. At the moment Britain is looked upon as a complete joke."
Lamine Diack, the Senegalese president of the IAAF, was said by officials to be deeply insulted when Caborn, who represents a constituency in Sheffield, offered scholarships for African athletes and to take partners of officials to Harrods if the world governing body would agree to move the championships.
"It displays the minister's amateurish approach," said Tim Yeo, the shadow spokesman for culture. "If it is a case that a minister with strong local connections offered inducements to go to Sheffield it is very unprofessional. Britain has suffered a severe blow to its international prestige."
The select committee will also ask Caborn why Crystal Palace was not considered as an alternative to the proposed dedicated athletics stadium at Picketts Lock, which the government refused to fund despite promises from Tony Blair that it would be built.
"It is clearly disturbing," said Yeo, who also planned to table a parliamentary question regarding the controversy.
"We have made what the IAAF thought was a solid commitment to host the event [insisting] from Tony Blair downwards that Picketts Lock would be built. I think the international sporting community feels very let down."
Wyatt, the Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, admitted that the government had failed and that Britain could forget bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games following the huge blow to the country's reputation for staging major international events. He believes the national stadium should have been at Wembley, as originally proposed.
"We could have had Wembley half finished by now," Wyatt said. "I agree we should not go forward on future bids unless stuff is built. No one will believe us in the future."
Yeo concurred. "This is a question the sporting world is talking about, not just in athletics," he said. "I was in Manchester during the weekend and the football world is dismayed because the decision has cost us our chances of getting the 2014 World Cup."
Also disappointed is Fast Track, the marketing agent for UK Athletics, which had hoped to use Picketts Lock for the annual grand prix meeting.
"Britain might be a nation of sports lovers but its government isn't," said Jon Ridgeon, Fast Track's athletics director. "They are happy to jump on the soccer bandwagon but for the sake of a few million quid we have basically said, 'forget us as serious candidates to host the World Cup or Olympic Games'."
