Pupils will today demand that a minister explain why the coalition has made funding for school sport in England one of the casualties of its cost-cutting.
Tim Loughton, the children's minister, will face tough questioning when he meets a delegation of students before a protest at parliament that is expected to draw up to 1,000 primary and secondary pupils and teachers from across England.
Olympic gold medallists Denise Lewis and Darren Campbell will also join the protest. In a move revealed by the Guardian last week, scores of elite British athletes past and present wrote to the prime minister, David Cameron, condemning education secretary Michael Gove's decision to stop the £162m-a-year funding for England's 450 school sports partnerships (SSPs) at the end of next March as "illogical" and likely to damage young people's health and fuel childhood obesity.
Young people led by Debbie Foote, a 17-year-old pupil from Grantham in Lincolnshire, will also deliver a petition signed by more than half a million people at Downing Street later this morning that will add to the pressure on Cameron.
"This is devastating news, not only for young people today, but for the future generations who will miss out on the fantastic opportunities SSPs provide," Foote said. MPs on all sides are concerned about the potential impact of getting rid of SSPs.
Ed Miliband is expected to meet some of the protesters today, as well as Andy Burnham, the shadow education secretary, Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture, media and sport secretary, and Tessa Jowell, the opposition spokeswoman on the 2012 Olympics.
"The government's decision to scrap SSPs has been met with shock and outrage by elite athletes, head teachers and young people," the trio said in a joint statement. "The peaceful protest is an indication of the strength of feeling that exists over the threat to the ability of young people to play the sport they love."
Read More: Top athletes to join protest over school sports
