The London Daily News

The mayor of Newham has added to concerns that locals are missing out on the job benefits of the Olympics.

More transparency was demanded over Olympic Delivery Authority claims that 20% of the 2012 work force was "local".

Last year MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington Diane Abbott accused developers of "massaging" job figures and rubbished claims by the games organisers - who boasted that a quarter of workers would be locals. She called those numbers "regrettably low."

Officials "blocking scrutiny"

Sir Robin Wales said that 2012 officials were blocking attempts to put the figures under scrutiny.

He wants to know how many of the 4,101 employees have long term residency in the five Olympic boroughs. Newham has an unemployment rate over 9%.

Figures for foreign workers were omitted - at last count; they made up a third of all workers.

Workers 'brought in from Europe'

Ms Abbott says constructors are bringing workers in from the continent, housing them in hostels and classifying them as 'local.'

She said in the House of Commons:

"One way in which the big contractors are getting round and massaging the figures for local labour is by bringing labourers from all over Europe into the Olympic boroughs and putting them in hostels.

"Those labourers are then counted as local people, but in fact they have been shipped in from all parts of Europe."