Mr Johnson said that there was no reason why state school pupils should also benefit from several hours a week of physical education.

He went on: “I think the Government totally understands people’s appetite for this, they can see the benefits of sport and what it does for young people. I think they understand very, very clearly the social and economic advantages.

“I think it is of profound importance for the happiness and success of this country that we have more sport in schools.”

“I would like to see a much more thoroughgoing effort. I think we must build on the achievements of these Games.

“People are signing up for sporting activities of all kinds, they are enrolling, they are involved.”

Should state school pupils should get two hours sport a day?

Mr Johnson echoed a suggestion made by Mr Cameron that the 80,000 volunteer Games Makers at London 2012 could “mobilised” to “train kids up” in sporting activities, given that they have already been checked for criminal convictions.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, took to Twitter to criticise the Government’s decision to scrap the two-hour target.

He said: Just met former school sport coordinator for Southwark. He organised competitive sport for schools but lost his job. Not his fault or school’s.

“Southwark school sports coordinator also told me schools have now told him they are doing much less because of loss of support.”

But Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport told BBC Radio 4’s PM that targets were not the answer to improving participation in sport in schools, saying this was “not all about money and structures, but a culture change that recognises the power of competitive sport.”

An Olympic education: schools producing Team GB Olympians

Team GB Olympians with degrees

He went on: “I think the Government totally understands people’s appetite for this, they can see the benefits of sport and what it does for young people. I think they understand very, very clearly the social and economic advantages.

“I think it is of profound importance for the happiness and success of this country that we have more sport in schools.”

“I would like to see a much more thoroughgoing effort. I think we must build on the achievements of these Games.

“People are signing up for sporting activities of all kinds, they are enrolling, they are involved.”

Mr Johnson echoed a suggestion made by Mr Cameron that the 80,000 volunteer Games Makers at London 2012 could “mobilised” to “train kids up” in sporting activities, given that they have already been checked for criminal convictions.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, took to Twitter to criticise the Government’s decision to scrap the two-hour target.

He said: Just met former school sport coordinator for Southwark. He organised competitive sport for schools but lost his job. Not his fault or school’s.

“Southwark school sports coordinator also told me schools have now told him they are doing much less because of loss of support.”

But Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport told BBC Radio 4’s PM that targets were not the answer to improving participation in sport in schools, saying this was “not all about money and structures, but a culture change that recognises the power of competitive sport”

He went on: “This summer has shown how powerful competitive sport can be for teaching the lessons of life.”

The Conservatives accused teaching unisons of damaging school sport by banning teachers from supervising pupils outside of class time.

They claimed that the NASUWT, the biggest teaching union, had issued guidance to teachers saying “Members should refuse to attend any meetings and activities outside school session times which are not on the school calendar and which are not within directed time.”

The NUT was said to be balloting its members to join the NASUWT in a “work to rule”.

Damian Hinds, a Conservative member of the Education Select Committee, said: “Following the huge success of the Olympics, the last thing we want is to go back to a time when school sport was crippled by militant union leaders embarking on a damaging and irresponsible work to rule.”

But Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said the Conservatives had been “selectively quoting”. She added: “The NASUWT action short of strike action has not targeted sporting activities at all.

“The sport saboteurs are not unions, but ideologically driven Government ministers who are vandalising our education service.”

5 London 2012 is not just a breakthrough for women but for the older generation. Japan has entered a 71-year-old competitor for the dressage. He first competed for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the year I was born. Banzai!

6 The Olympic Stadium is looking utterly superb, and is packed with athletics fans from the beginning of the day – very unusual in modern Olympics. If you watched the climax of the events on sensational Saturday, you will have become aware of a wall of noise from the supporters – a vast pro-British sonic boom that seemed almost physically to propel the Team GB athletes. When Greg Rutherford jumped, or when Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah made their amazing sprints for the finish, you could tell they were almost literally lifted by the crowd. It must be obvious that it would be insane to knock this venue down. With or without football, that stadium has a great future.

7 Sir Paul McCartney singing Hey Jude at the velodrome.

8 The weather – perfect English weather for a garden fête.

9 The BBC has more than made up for any deficiencies in its coverage of the Jubilee, with an endless stream of dazzling pictures and apposite commentary. My favourite is the late-night summary with Gabby Logan.

10 And the Beeb has not only given up the “empty seats” story. It has also chucked the stuff about “ghost town” London. There were about 100,000 people at the Hyde Park Live Site on Saturday night, and big crowds of shoppers both in Oxford Street and Covent Garden, to say nothing of the stupendous multitudes at Westfield in Stratford. Across the world people are seeing images of a country that seems to be (a) happy, (b) relaxed, (c) welcoming, (d) full of beautiful places and interesting things to do, and (e) pretty efficient at laying on the greatest sporting event on earth. That is worth a great deal to London and to the UK economy.

11 Many people seem to have enjoyed me looking like a complete prat on a zip wire. I want you to know that I had no intention of getting stuck. The only upside is that we saw a big increase in footfall in our excellent Live Site in Victoria Park, and long queues to use the zip wire of doom.

12 The ArcelorMittal Orbit may be bizarre, but it has been packed out.

13 The Tube is carrying more passengers than ever before – record numbers on most days of last week. Indeed, the transport network is (on the whole) running so reliably that quite a few officials and members of the Olympic “family” have apparently abandoned their BMWs in favour of public transport. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, was conveyed on the Docklands Light Railway, and pronounced it comfortable in every respect.

14 Robbery in London has fallen while the Games have been on – making a safe city even safer.

15 The Games have been the most dramatic possible lesson in the virtues of ambition, hard work and competition. They are the opposite of the something-for-nothing culture. They could not come at a better time for a nation making a difficult psychological adjustment, after long years of easy credit and ballooning debt.

16 They seem to have exposed unexpected reserves of positive energy – pride – that is passionate without being remotely intimidating or chauvinistic. John Major once said he wanted “a nation at ease with itself”. Here it is.

17 The co-stars of the show have been the volunteers – whether they are with Locog, or Team London Ambassadors, or the Tfl volunteers. Most Olympic cities say that their volunteers start to drift away, with attrition rates of more than 10 per cent. Here in London we have a 98 per cent retention rate.

18 We have not only revived the ancient cult of near-nudity in the beach volleyball. The park also boasts a bronze plaque with an ode to the Games in Pindaric Greek.

19 There will now be overwhelming political pressure to encourage more competitive sport in all schools.

20 Stop press. Andy Murray has just won GGGGOLD! He has defeated Roger Federer and avenged Wimbledon. Excuse me but… honk… proot… sob… I don’t think I can write any more…