A defiant Lord Falconer insisted he would not resign last night, despite a National Audit Office report identifying "weak" financial management and "ambitious and inherently risky" visitor targets at the heart of the costly and controversial Millennium Dome.
Although not named in the report, the Cabinet Office Minister responsible was instantly identified as the man who should have intervened to resolve the mounting financial crisis at the Dome.
The indictment of the Dome's management included charges that:
its business plan was based on "a highly ambitious and risky" projection for 12 million visitors;
it failed to respond when it became clear the target would not be met;
it lacked the systems to produce reliable financial forecasts; and
it experienced difficulty establishing the extent of its liabilities in order to achieve solvent liquidation and a handover to a new owner.
The Shadow Culture Secretary, Mr Peter Ainsworth, said the report proved Lord Falconer's position untenable: "It clearly states he was responsible for monitoring the Dome's cost, content, national impact, legacy and effective management, and that on all counts he failed."
However, Lord Falconer hit back, dismissing Tory resignation calls as "goldplated hypocrisy". He admitted "mistakes" had been made, while highlighting the report's finding that opening the Dome on time had itself been "a major achievement", and insisting people should not lose sight of what had been achieved: "The Dome is the number one pay-to-visit attraction in the United Kingdom, with over 5.4 million visits so far . . . It has been the catalyst for the regeneration of the once contaminated Greenwich peninsula."
And while the government regretted the Dome did not deliver the visitor numbers anticipated, Lord Falconer countered it was the Tories who had set the ambitious plan in motion and originated the target of 12 million visitors.
This, he said, had always been a "bipartisan" project.