Hugh Robertson, the Shadow Sports and Olympics spokesman, claimed Brown had let them down by failing to deliver the £600 million worth of funding he had promised them in 2006.

 

Brown had said that the Government would provide £500 million to help Britain's athletes get ready for London 2012 but an additional £100 million had to be raised by the private sector.

 

That figure has since dropped to £79 million - thanks to the rise  in the sale of National Lottery tickets - but the figure is proving difficult in the current economic climate.

 

Robertson said: “Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, promised to provide £600 million in his March 2006 Budget to train Britain 's Olympic athletes for London 2012.

 

"As only £500 miullion has so far been received, UK Sport will have to make cuts at its board meeting on December 2 which will mean fewer athletes and fewer teams in Team GB.

 

“This is a cruel betrayal of our Olympic team after their most successful Games ever and breaks promises made in the 2006 budget.

 

"It is also bound to have an impact on the likely revenues from London 2012 and the number of UK athletes the home crowd can support.”

 

Robertson highlighted the case of hockey as a perfect example of a sport that could be let down by any cuts.

 

As insidethegames revealed last week, they fear that a cut in their funding of £8.3 million in the build-up to London 2012 will compromise their preparations.

 

Robertson told insidethegames: "British Hockey is absolutely right to be extremely concerned about possible cuts to their programme.

 

"This is directly caused by the Government's failure to fund the £600 million promised by Gordon Brown.

 

"It is a classic example of a sport where success at elite level stimulates participation in the grassroots.

 

"Because hockey is equally popular with both men and women and people can play it from an early age until their late 60s, it can make a huge contribution to driving up participation numbers - which is exactly what we pledged to do when we won the bid.

 

"It would be utter folly to cut their grant now."