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Boris Johnson to face Olympic Stadium cost questions

Boris Johnson will be asked to justify his management of London's Olympic Stadium as part of an in-depth investigation into the "skyrocketing" costs of converting the arena for West Ham United.

The investigation, commissioned by Mr Johnson's successor as London Mayor Sadiq Khan, was launched after Sky News revealed that the bill for transforming the stadium has risen by £50m more than previously announced.

The costs include an estimated £8m every year to move supposedly retractable seats, installed to bring football fans closer to the action, off the track to allow athletics every summer.

The bill for conversion has risen from £272m to £323m, and the total cost of the stadium to £752m.

The investigation's terms of reference, published on Friday, make it clear that Mr Johnson, now Foreign Secretary, is one of a number of officials who will be asked to explain their conduct during the stadium's troubled path since the Olympics.

The investigation will look at every stage of the stadium's design and construction, the key decisions that informed it, as well as the future operation of the stadium.

It will make recommendations as to how to make the stadium more profitable, and reduce running costs that currently fall on the taxpayer.

The review will examine the role of stadium operator VINCI, which has a 25-year deal to run the stadium, and may also consider the stadium ownership structure.

The investigation will also examine the original design decisions, taken by the then Labour Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and the London 2012 leadership.

The original legacy plan was for the stadium to be a 25,000-seat athletics arena, unable to host major team sports events and without retractable seats.

Announcing the terms of reference Mr Khan said: "There are some huge questions that need to be answered about the financing of the London Stadium.

"We need to find out how on earth the transformation costs were allowed to skyrocket, and whether appropriate checks were made before key decisions were made.

"But just as important in this process will be looking to the future to ensure we get the Stadium into a situation where we are able to reduce its cost to the taxpayer and it can operate as a successful multi-purpose stadium that our city can be proud of."

The post-Olympic legacy of the stadium has been controversial from the outset, with Tottenham and West Ham involved in a bitter bidding war to become the anchor tenants, and UK Athletics guaranteed a six-week window every summer.

West Ham won the bid and agreed a deal whereby they pay just £2.5m-a-year in rent. During negotiations, however, Mr Johnson agreed to install "retractable" seats, which were intended to move back and forth easily and cheaply.

The original projection was it would take just five days to move the seats at a cost of around £300,000 a-year.

Rather than sliding on the planned hydraulic system however the stands have simply been built on the track, and have to be dismantled and moved by hand in a process that could take up to 30 days in total.

That would eat into the time available for athletics and a planned community and concert programme every summer.

Earlier this week West Ham vice chairman Baroness Brady told a forum of supporters' websites and bloggers it unlikely that genuinely retractable seats would ever be installed as long as the stadium is owned by the state because of the "vast costs" involved.

Three independent companies have been asked to bid to carry out the investigation, with terms of reference that include examination of:

:: All relevant construction, financial and operation arrangements

:: Key decisions, contractual commitments and financial projections

:: Due diligence and negotiations

:: The stadium's ongoing financial viability and operating costs