Tom Watson peerage rejected

Former deputy Labour leader’s nomination believed to have been rejected over his support for allegations of a paedophile ring at Westminster made by a fantasist who was later jailed

The Independent suggested Mr Watson was rejected for a peerage after he highlighted the claims of fantasist Carl Beech, who later went to jail, who claimed a paedophile ring had operated in Westminster.

The claims led the Metropolitan Police to conduct dawn raids on the homes of the late military chief Lord Bramall, the late Lord Brittan and former MP Harvey Proctor.

Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP smeared by the allegations, has led a campaign to deny Mr Watson a peerage. There were also a number of left-wing instigated campaigns and petitions to stop Watson’s peerage. These were a reflection of Watson’s constant undermining of the Labour Party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership years.

For many Watson simply did not deserve a peerage.

Watson at best is a controversial character within the Labour Party and is best remembered for the divisions he created rather than the unity he promised.

Watson was elected as his party’s Deputy Leader, many Labour members voted for Watson based on his claim to expose child abuse in the establishment.
The fact is, Watson made great gains on the back of the hunt for Westminster paedophiles, doing so without hard evidence, due process and credible witnesses he has now undermined any future investigation.

Watson was instrumental in the re-suspension of one of the Labour Party’s most popular socialists Chris Williamson.

Len McCluskey says Tom Watson lives in ‘world of skulduggery’

Watson’s old flatmate and Unite the union leader Len McCluskey declared ” Tom Watson lives in ‘world of skulduggery’

In a strikingly personal critique, McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, called Labour’s deputy leader a backstabber who lives in a “world of skulduggery, smears and secret plots”. 

McCluskey is also recorded saying of Watson: “When Labour has needed loyalty he has been sharpening his knife looking for a back to stab. When unity is required he manufactures division”

In 2019, following defections of Labour MPs to The Independent Group (TIG), Watson set up the Future Britain Group of Labour politicians.

Watson has been criticised for continuing to accept funding from property developer David Garrard, who was reported to have given breakaway party Change UK £1.5m and to have financially supported Joan Ryan and Ian Austin since their departure from Labour. Watson has also received funding from businessman Trevor Chinn.

The same Trevor Chin that financially supported Sir Keir Starmer’s Leadership campaign caused controversy as Starmer refused to openly show his backers until after winning the leadership.

In July 2019, Watson was criticised by Labour’s General Secretary Jennie Formby for being irresponsible in criticising Labour’s handling of anti-Semitism claims. Formby said he risked exacerbating fears in the Jewish community and that, while antisemitism was a real problem, steps had been taken to tackle it.

Watson had asked for a copy of the party response to a request by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to be released to the Shadow Cabinet and the NEC, which Formby said she had already offered sight to Watson (she did not address the subject of releasing it to the rest of the Shadow Cabinet and NEC), and had previously asked to be copied in on individual complaints, which had data protection issues. In response to Watson’s claim that the party’s response to the Panorama programme Is Labour Anti-Semitic had “smeared” the former Labour staff members and “breached all common standards of decency”, Formby stated that all current Labour staff members had access to an “Employee Assistance Programme” but said the party was not made aware of the distress suffered by staff members at the time and she was “very concerned” to hear about it for the first time in the Panorama documentary.

Watson was also criticised for attacking Formby when she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

The same month, former Labour and Respect MP George Galloway and former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor announced individually that they planned to stand against Watson at the next general election, Galloway as a pro-Brexit pro-Corbyn independent, and Proctor in protest at Watson’s role in the false paedophilia allegations of Operation Midland. July also saw Watson be the subject of a complaint to the Labour Party for making allegedly antisemitic remarks; he had in his Easter message asked readers to recall the arrest of Christ by “a squad of Roman soldiers under the direction of a servant to the High Priest.” The complainant, Geoffrey Alderman, said that the fact this was not antisemitic under the IHRA definition adopted by the Labour Party highlighted the definition’s “flaws”.This was also the month in which cartoonist Steve Bell protested to The Guardian after it refused to run an instalment of his long running ‘If…’ cartoon strip, which portrayed Watson as an “antisemite finder general”.

In September 2019, Watson made a speech urging Labour to become a pro-remain party, in order to win back disaffected remain voters. He has been quoted by The Guardian as saying that “most of those who’ve deserted us over our Brexit policy did so with deep regret and would greatly prefer to come back; they just want us to take an unequivocal position that, whatever happens, we’ll fight to remain, and to sound like we mean it.

Watson was to be proved totally wrong, Labour’s 2019 white paper showed the party had lost the General election by submitting to a second referendum policy.

“Jeremy Corbyn rejected his proposition, saying that Labour would continue to represent both sides of the Brexit divide.

Before becoming the Labour party’s deputy leader, Watson used his position to intervene in four separate sexual abuse cases in correspondence with Sir Keir Starmer and his successor, Alison Saunders, about sexual abuse cases.

On one occasion, Watson demanded that a prosecuting lawyer who decided not to pursue an abuse claim be removed from the case and his previous caseload reviewed.

The then MP claimed in another incident to have informants who told him that child abusers were using the court process to avoid prosecution. In another case, he questioned why a former coalition minister accused of abuse had not been quizzed by police.

Watson’s support of Carl Beech, the fantasist has now helped cover up and discredit any further investigations into Westminster paedophile rings.

A spokesperson for the Labour Party refused to comment, but party sources were keen to distance Sir Keir Starmer from the nominations, which were made on behalf of the party.

“These were appointments made by Jeremy Corbyn; we are not involved in the decision-making process.”

All political nominations for the dissolution honours list after the last election, including as many as 20 Conservative peers, have been delayed until at least the autumn by the coronavirus crisis.