Cameron gives Qatar tips on labour practices
Qatar should learn from the UK’s construction of the 2012 Olympic venues, David Cameron said as he spoke about safety standards for World Cup stadium workers.
“My message is that they ought to insist on better,” the Prime Minister said following reports that large numbers of migrant workers are dying on building sites for the 2022 football tournament.
Without improving standards, campaigners warn, at least 4,000 workers could die before the tournament starts.
“We in the Olympics, I think I’m right in saying, managed to build that entire Olympic Park with the best ever record on safety – no-one dying during construction, keeping injuries to an absolute minimum,” Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“It can be done. The British construction industry we really can hold up as a good example to the rest of the world. That gives us an advantage in saying to the rest of the world ‘We’ll come and build some of your infrastructure’.
“This was an area we were bad at in the past and I think everyone has a duty to insist on the best safety standards.”
And yet, this is the same person, who, last year, said that health and safety legislation had become an “albatross around the neck of British businesses”, costing them billions of pounds a year and leaving entrepreneurs in fear of speculative claims.