PRIME Minister Tony Blair has revealed he has called for a top-level meeting with health and safety chiefs to try to end rules that have stopped some parents taking their children swimming.

Mr Blair was pressed about the rules during Prime Minister’s Questions and asked to intervene by Labour backbencher Kali Mountford.

The controversial guidelines were first highlighted by the Kent Messenger after parents were told they could not take two children swimming where one child was under the age of four and only one adult was with them.

Maidstone Leisure Centre and Tenterden Leisure Centre are among many sports centres to have implemented the guidelines, which have been issued by the Institute for Sport and Recreation Management.

At Westminster, Mr Blair told MPs that he had been alerted to the issue after his visit to Kent a fortnight ago.

He said the rules were a “complete nonsense” and that he had asked the Secretary of State for Sport Tessa Jowell to call in industry chiefs for a meeting.

“I have to say I think the current situation of the new guidelines have given rise to a complete nonsense because I think parents are perfectly well able to judge how they must best look after their children. I have asked the Culture and Sport Secretary to bring in the Institute for Sport and Recreation Management and Health and Safety Executive to see if we can get this situation sorted out. I think it is causing quite unnecessary distress and concern to many parents in the country,” he said.

Maidstone mother Carolyn Warner, who is spearheading the “Right to Swim” campaign and quizzed the Prime Minister about the issue during his visit to the county, said she was delighted.

“I am amazed and thrilled that he is pushing to get something done. He has really got our hopes up now that something will be done. As a father of four children himself, I am sure he understands why parents are angry,” she said.

“If the issue had not been raised by the Kent Messenger and give me the chance to talk to Mr Blair, we would not have got this far.”

Carolyn was among a group of KM Group readers invited to meet the Prime Minister during his visit.