London Olympics cost tops $17.4 billion

LONDON, March 11 (UPI) -- The British government is set to reveal that the price tag of the 2012 London Olympics has now surpassed $17.4 billion.

The Sunday Telegraph reported this week that Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will disclose, as predicted 18 months ago, the budget for the Olympics has skyrocketed far beyond the original projected cost of nearly $4.65 billion.

Hugh Robertson, the shadow Olympics minister, said both Brown and Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell concealed the escalating cost of the Games.

"It is now absolutely clear that Gordon Brown and Tessa Jowell knew that the Olympic budget could overrun," he said. "But at exactly the same time, the government was giving Parliament cast-iron assurances that the original budget was robust and deliverable."

The newspaper said that with meeting transcriptions offering apparent evidence to back up such claims, other British politicians have begun to ask for more details regarding the London Olympics and its financial status.