John Prescott

"Don't blame the Government" Dur: 1'15"

Anger at Prescott Dome Comments

The Deputy Prime Minister said the award of the £6.1 million contract for the dome's outer covering to the German Koch group was a "sad reflection" on the competence of the industry.

"It doesn't look too good for the British construction industry but why blame the Government? The Government wants to build a project that it inherited from the Tories and apparently no British constructor could bid for it," said Mr Prescott

"I think that is a sad reflection on the competency of the industry but we have as we have and we inherited it," he added.

Dome Sweet Dome

The BBC's John Pienaar reports on the row over the dome Dur: 2'57"

It later emerged that much of the work on the contract would be done by a British subsidiary in what the firm described as a 50% British, 50% European project.

Mr Prescott's comments came after Downing Street had been at pains to play down the award of the contract to the Munich-based group saying it was only one of 30 major contracts for the dome totalling £250 million.

His remarks also struck a sharply different note from the man in charge of the dome project, Minister without Portfolio Peter Mandelson who hailed it as a "success story" for British industry.

The Construction Confederation has rejected Mr Prescott's criticisms, insisting British firms should be receiving praise not brickbats for their work on the project.

As he posed for photographers with a crab, Mr Prescott named it Peter, and asked it: "Do you think you will get on the executive Peter?" - a reference to Mr Mandelson's bid for election to Labour's ruling National Executive Committee.

His jibe caught journalists by surprise, coming amid press reports of tension between the two men over Mr Mandelson's high-profile role "minding the shop" while Tony Blair has been out of the country on holiday.

Mr Prescott later sought to diffuse suggestions that he was at odds with Mr Mandelson insisting that his comments had been intended in jest.

The row broke as Mr Mandelson, was seeking to trumpet the success of British firms involved in the scheme to build the dome at Greenwich in south east London.

In an interview with BBC Radio WM during a visit to one of the sub-contractors in Coventry he tried to play down the award of the contract to a German firm.

"I am not disappointed really by that because overwhelmingly the huge bulk of work and the value of what we are doing at Greenwich is being taken up by British companies and that means good news for British firms, British jobs and British investment," he said.

Three companies, one British, one German and one Italian, had tendered for the contract to construct the synthetic covering to be suspended from 12 steel poles each 100m high.

The British firm had however pulled out after deciding that it was unable to take on such a big project. It later submitted a second bid in partnership with an American firm but that was 50% higher than the Germans.