MP Proud of Bath's Links with Swimming as She Joins Parliamentary Group

12 May 2021

Wera Hobhouse, Member of Parliament for Bath, today spoke of her pride of the links between the city and swimming as she was elected vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming.

Bath is home to one of only two national performance centres for swimming in England, the other being Loughborough. Recently nine swimmers based out of Bath were selected for the upcoming Tokyo Olympic team.

Speaking after the APPG meeting, Wera said: “Our whole city is proud of the many talented swimmers nurtured and developed at the performance centre, and also the many wonderful recreational clubs we have. I was delighted to become vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming, which brings together like minded MPs and peers from across the political divide to discuss issues affecting swimming.”

“Just today the APPG and Swim England released an important report looking into the impact Covid has had on school swimming attainment rates, which forecasts a worrying drop in attainment levels that could see over 1 million children leaving primary school unable to swim over the next five years.

"I want to see every child in Bath, and across the country, able to swim and be safe in the water so that they can enjoy the water for the rest of their lives and potentially even become the next generation of elite athletes at the performance centre.”

“I look forward to continuing to champion swimming in parliament and beyond in what is a particularly exciting year with the Olympics just around the corner.”