Report due on Wembley

British MPs investigating the troubled project to build a new national stadium at Wembley were today publishing what was expected to be a highly critical report.

Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairman Gerald Kaufman has already castigated the lottery cash distributor, Sport England, describing its handling of a £120m (€186m) grant for the stadium as ‘‘slack to the point of scandal‘‘.

During its inquiry, the committee took evidence from former consultants to the project who claimed that Australian developers Multiplex had been given ‘‘preferential treatment’’ in bidding for the contract.

The committee also released a memorandum, under the cloak of parliamentary privilege, from City troubleshooter David James warning that the contract could never be regarded as ‘‘100% safe‘‘.

James - the man who saved the Millennium Dome - said that under normal circumstances the bidding competition should have been re-run and that Wembley National Stadium Ltd could still face censure by the National Audit Office.

MPs were also astonished to learn during the hearings of an agreement which meant that if the project fell through, the old Wembley stadium would have to be taken out of mothballs and FA Cup finals staged there for the next 20 years.

The disclosure of the deal infuriated West Midlands MPs who said it made a mockery of Birmingham’s supposed ‘‘preferred second bidder’’ status for the new stadium.