Tom watson

Down-hearted moderates at this year’s Labour conference have received a much-needed boost this afternoon from the party’s Deputy Leader. Tom Watson gave a barnstorming speech to congregates as he defended Labour’s record in government and vowed to take the fight to the Tories in the next general election. After months of navel-gazing in the Labour leadership race, Watson turned his ire on the opposition. He described Theresa May as a Lib Dem manifesto pledge — ‘abandoned’ — as he accused her of ‘ducking and diving; humming and hahing’ on everything from the Northern powerhouse to the Single Market. As for the Liberal Democrats’ claim that they are the real opposition, Watson

On Tuesday, Labour’s National Executive Committee met for eight and a half hours as Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson tried to steer the party in different directions. Facing the prospect of Corbyn being reinstated as Labour leader indefinitely, Watson attempted to pass a motion for the return of Shadow Cabinet elections. The deputy Labour leader’s claim that it would help ‘put the band back together’ as the party tries to heal wasn’t enough to convince the NEC. A motion to decide on the details of the plan ahead of Saturday’s leadership result was voted down, with a second motion to ensure a decision is made on Saturday also defeated. However, it wasn’t all bad news

Today’s PMQs have proved to be a lively affair as David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn traded jibes at the despatch box for the last time. While the Labour leader found time to praise the Prime Minister’s time in power, Cameron was less obliging when it came to Corbyn. As well as ridiculing Labour for its ongoing row about the leadership rules, he took a leaf from Corbyn’s book by reading out an email he had received from a member of the public. The email — from a woman by the name of Judith — had been sent ahead of Cameron’s first ever PMQs with Corbyn. In it, she warned Cameron to not

With Angela Eagle clear that she will run to be the next Labour leader and Jeremy Corbyn willing to contest any such challenge, the Labour party is in a state of stalemate until Tuesday’s meeting of the National Executive Committee. At the crunch meeting, the NEC will announce whether or not Corbyn is automatically on the ballot — with a legal challenge expected whatever the result. So with the result looming, Monday’s PLP meeting proved to be a rather muted affair as MPs wait to learn their party’s fate. Tom Watson’s spokesman described the mood as ‘not the greatest’, while John Mann walked out halfway through complaining that Emily Thornberry was ‘prattling on’. However,

As Jeremy Corbyn tries to hold off the threat of a coup from members of his shadow cabinet, it’s probably for the best that he pulled out of a planned appearance at Glastonbury today. However, not everyone in Labour’s top command appears to have received the memo about putting the party’s woes above the annual music festival. Step forward Tom Watson. Labour’s deputy leader had no qualms about living it up at Worthy Farm last night. In fact, Labour’s worries over Europe appeared to be far from Watson’s mind as he used snapchat to document his crazy night on the — muddy — tiles: Tom Watson's final Glastonbury snapchat…. He must be on a

Tom Watson’s comments today that a future government would have to try to reform freedom of movement rules in the European Union are clearly a last-ditch attempt to show the party’s voters that it is taking their anger about immigration seriously. But they are also strange, for three reasons. The first is that it is strange to be talking about a future renegotiation when the Remain campaign does still occasionally try to persuade voters that they are voting to stay in a reformed European Union. By talking about what more needs to be done, Watson is effectively dumping all over the renegotiation that David Cameron has already carried out, saying that

Although the Tories currently find their party divided over Europe, they can at least take heart that the opposition face greater internal conflict. In fact, rather than attack Matthew Hancock in the Commons today over the Cabinet’s Brexit issues, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson opted to make a joke about his own party’s misery: ‘Mr Speaker sadly I am not in the strongest of positions to lecture the poor minister on handling splits in his own party.’ Watson did at least manage to find time to take a small jab at the Conservatives. He asked the minister whether he really believed that Jeremy Heywood’s decision to ban SpAds from providing ministers with material that could be used to support Brexit would really

Corbynterpretation [n]: The inevitable process of debate, after Jeremy Corbyn is interviewed, over what he actually meant. Does the Labour leader believe the killing of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy, or not believe this? Would he like Britain to negotiate with Daesh or would he be opposed to that happening? Would he, or would he not, abandon the Falkland Islands? As in, ‘Well, that’s a matter of Corbynterpretation’ or, ‘No, no, those remarks have been totally misCorbynterpreted.’ In order to Corbynterpret [v] one must first consider 1. Whether the Labour leader brought up the disputed view himself (invariably not) 2. Whether the Labour leader clearly said ‘yes’ after somebody

Michael Dugher was sacked while his key ally and Labour deputy leader Tom Watson was out of the country, Coffee House has learned. Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle may have been limited, but it included a clear attempt to undermine alternative Shadow Cabinet powerbases, including the notion that Tom Watson can protect his allies on the frontbench. But Labour’s Deputy Leader was on holiday in Lanzarote when the reshuffle started, apparently unaware that there was going to be a reshuffle at the start of the week when Parliament was still in recess. I understand that he was told that Dugher would be sacked on Monday night. The Shadow Culture Secretary lost his

There have been few more pathetic displays of political impotence than the tweets sent by shadow cabinet members paying tribute to Michael Dugher after his sacking by Jeremy Corbyn. Dugher, a classic northern Labour fixer, had taken on the role of shadow cabinet shop steward. He spoke out against Momentum, the Corbynite pressure group, warned against a ‘revenge reshuffle’ and criticised negative briefings against the shadow cabinet from the leader’s office. But rather than protesting at his sacking through a walkout, shadow cabinet members confined their solidarity to a 140-character gesture. Their tweets, rather than looking like brave defiance of the boss, actually showed just how cowed they are. Dugher’s

The biggest problem with Labour’s furious and seemingly endless infighting is that it is preventing the party from doing its job of scrutinising the government. The Shadow Cabinet are largely scrutinising their leader and one another, which makes it easier for David Cameron to be vague about certain aspects of his case for war. But today, Tom Watson has written to the Prime Minister demanding a delay in the vote and clarity on two key points. They are: 1. The detail behind Cameron’s claim that there are ‘approximately 70,000 opposition figures on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups’. 2. A timeline for peace and arrangements for a

Tom Watson, the man who hated Brittan, appeared before the Home Affairs committee this afternoon. In earlier evidence it became clear that the Met was divided on the rape allegations against the late Lord Brittan. Detective Chief Inspector Settle said that to subject him to an interview under caution would have constituted ‘a baseless witch-hunt’. Dep Assist Commissioner Steve Rodhouse disagreed and said it was unusual not to question a rape suspect. Tom Watson played a role as the victim’s cheerleader. He wrote a letter urging the DPP to ensure that Brittain was quizzed. DCI Settle called Watson’s actions ‘undermining’ and ‘a low blow.’ He said Watson had caused panic

Tom Watson, Labour’s embattled deputy leader, delivered a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon on accusations about the former home secretary Leon Brittan – which proved to be baseless. In response to a point of order by Sir Nicolas Soames, the Conservative MP for Mid Sussex, Watson delivered the following statement about the Brittan allegations which were later dismissed by the police. Watson acknowledged that people might have been angry with his language but did not apologise for his actions: ‘I understand the honourable and right honourable members feel aggrieved that Leon Britain was interviewed by the police and that they’re angry with my use of language. But I’m sure