Labour’s shadow culture, media and sport secretary Michael Dugher said yesterday that “failure to act decisively” on Monday’s World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report on Russia “would put the reputation of world athletics in grave peril.”

The damning document claimed there was a “state-sponsored” doping programme in Russia and that the London 2012 Olympics were “sabotaged” because of it.

An International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council meeting today could decide the fate of Russian athletics, with calls for the country to be banned from next year’s Rio 2016 Olympics.