The Ministerial limo is no more, so during our lunch in Pimlico she had to keep nipping out between courses to feed the parking meter. Tessa Jowell MP, a prime architect of London getting the 2012 Games in her erstwhile role as Olympics Minister in the last Labour administration. may be in the shadows now yet she remains very much in the picture.

She giggled when I mentioned that she is still prominent in the list, recently published by The Times, of sport's most powerful and influential movers and shakers. "Really? I'd never have thought it."

"Her networking skills, devotion to the London 2012 project and accumulated knowledge make her indispensable, even to the Coalition Government," reads the citation.

Indispensable she certainly was when London were bidding for the Games.

Indeed, it is fair to say that but for her London may never have entered the race; it was Tessa who, as Secretary State at the Department  Media, Culture and Sport, twisted Tony Blair's arm and ceaselessly bent his ear once then idea was put to her by Craig Reedie, then chairman of the  British Olympic Association, almost a decade ago.

She had to apply a lot of pressure, but it worked,

So it seems somewhat sadly ironic that, barring an unforeseen snap General Election, she will be an outsider when the Games open in July of next year.

Well, perhaps not quite.

For Lord Coe insisted that she remained a member of the Olympic Board even when she lost office and he will ensure she is still right up there with the other bigwigs when it all happens.

She and Coe have always rubbed along, even though they look at thing politically from different perspectives. And she became popular within the IOC.

Yet Tessa knew virtually naff all about the nuts, bolts and Byzantine machinations of the Olympic Movement when she first got the job of being the political anchor of the Games bid. In fact I recall her early on once telling a group of us about a phone conversation she had just had with "that nice Peter Rogge".

But she proved a remarkably quick learner and a good listener.

She certainly listened when a few of us sports journos buttonholed her at a Crystal Palace athletics meet and told her that not having a having a certain Sebastian Coe on board was plain daft as he was the one British sports personality the IOC hierarchy respected above all others.

There had been an odd reluctance on the part of the BOA to get Coe involved, but after our chat Tessa made him a vice-president of the bid board and, when its then American chairman Barbara Cassani, a Ken Livingstone nominee, inevitably proved a square peg in the Olympic rings, it was Tessa who insisted on appointing Coe head honcho She also talked him into staying on when things hit a sticky patch during the infamous Dispatches episode.

The rest, as they say, is history.

It is good that Coe has repaid her commitment to him by keeping her very much in the front line of London's march on 2012. Hugh Robertson, the Coalition's Olympics Minister, certainly has no objection and says he finds her supportive, as does Lord Moynihan, another Tory who sits the Board.

Boris Johnson too - although that particular cross-party alliance is likely to be tested soon. For during our bite together Tessa revealed that she is to be the campaign manager for Livingstone when he attempts to regain the London Mayoral seat from Bojo next May, just a couple of months before the Games begin.

"I hope there'll no hard feelings," she says, "But this is politics."

So with Tessa as his henchwoman help we might see Livingstone doing the honours at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and not Boris, which from the entertainment viewpoint if nothing else would be a pity. But then, like Tessa, Red Ken did play a vital part in helping to get them, and ensuring much needed re-generation for this part of East London.

Which is why, whatever the outcome of the mayoral poll, both Johnson and Livingstone will be up there in the posh seats alongside Tessa when it all kicks off for Coe doesn't forget those who helped him along the way, whatever their political hue.


For then record, Tessa endorses the decision to turn over the Olympic Stadium to West Ham. "I was surprised the Tottenham bid got so far but the Olympic Park Legacy Company have done a very fair and rigorous job," she says. "The joint bid between West Ham and Newham Council means that that the legacy commitment made originally can be realised. It is the best thing for the community. We were always going to have a legacy and to keep our pledge not only to the IOC and IAAF, but to the athletes and the people of East London.

"Lord Sugar may take the opposite view but he would be hard pressed to find an Olympic city so far ahead of its legacy plans at this stage." Much of this is down to her.

So what else is Tessa up to these days, apart from being the Shadow Olympics and Cabinet Officer Minister?

"Constituency work mainly," says the long-standing MP for Dulwich and West Norwood. "I just love being involved with people."

At 63, she is trim and fit, visiting the gym three times a week. She also cycles and swims.

Since getting the Olympic bug she has become a genuine sports enthusiast (as befits the mother of a professional golfer). Her passion for the Olympics has become infectious, although her last boss, Gordon Brown, was not quite as easy to persuade as Blair as to the worthiness of London 2012.

You might even say it needed a bit of cheek by Jowell to finally convince him.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.