Tom Watson (politician)

Tom Watson MP
Tom Watson at 5th COMMUNIA Workshop
Deputy Chair of the Labour Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Stephen Timms (as Vice-Chair)
Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office
In office 25 January 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Gillian Merron
Succeeded by	Shriti Vadera
Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Peter Snape
Majority	6,696 (17.6%)
Personal details
Born	8 January 1967 (1967-01-08)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Siobhan Watson
Alma mater	University of Hull
Website	www.tom-watson.co.uk

Thomas Anthony Watson (born 8 January 1967) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009. In 2011, he was made the first ever Deputy Chair of the Labour Party, with responsibility for co-ordinating Labour's campaigning, by Ed Miliband.

Education and early career

Tom Watson was educated at King Charles I School, Kidderminster, and the University of Hull, where he was elected President of the Students' Union in 1992. He was Chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students from 1992–93. He then worked as a marketing officer and advertising account executive. In 1993, he began to work for the Labour Party as National Development Officer for Youth. He then worked on the party's 1997 general election campaign before becoming the National Political Officer of the AEEU trade union.

MP: in Government

He was elected MP for West Bromwich East in 2001. In 2003, he included a weblog on his website. In 2004, he won the New Statesman New Media Award in the category of elected representative for using his weblog to further the democratic process. He is also an active user of Twitter.

Parliamentary achievements

In his first year in Parliament, Watson launched a campaign to ban album sales of convicted sex offender Gary Glitter.

In 2002, Watson moved a Ten Minute Rule Bill to change organ donation laws. The Organ Donation (Presumed Consent and Safeguards) Bill was part of a joint campaign with the British Medical Association to increase the supply of organ donors in the UK.

Tom Watson was campaign organiser for the Labour Party in the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election in July 2004, in which he retained the seat in difficult political times for the party, in the wake of the Iraq War. This campaign drew criticism for its 'dirty' tactics, particularly a Labour leaflet proclaiming "Labour is on your side — the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers."

Watson was appointed as an Assistant Government Whip on 9 September 2004 and was nominated as a "Top Toadie" by The Guardian Diary on 6 January 2005. He was promoted on 5 May 2006 to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence.

During his time at the MoD, Watson was instrumental in ensuring that the soldiers shot for cowardice in World War I received pardons. Watson was said to have acted having met the relatives of Private Harry Farr, who was executed during World War I despite strong evidence that he was suffering shellshock. The mass pardon of 306 British Empire soldiers executed for certain offences during World War I was enacted in section 359 of the Armed Forces Act 2006, which came into effect on royal assent on 8 November 2006. This number included three from New Zealand, 23 from Canada, two from the West Indies, two from Ghana and one each from Sierra Leone, Egypt and Nigeria.

After returning to Government during Gordon Brown's premiership, Watson took a particular interest in digital affairs, and in making non-personal Government data more available to the public. During his time at the Cabinet Office, the Power of Information Taskforce examined the case for freer access to Government data, culminating in a report and a competition, ShowUsABetterWay, which gave a £20,000 prize for the best idea for a website that used Government data in innovative ways. He also established policies requiring Government to consider open source software as well as proprietary solutions during IT procurements. Before leaving office, Watson created a new post for a Director of Digital Engagement within the Cabinet Office.

Parliamentary events

On 5 September 2006, it was reported that Watson had signed a letter to Tony Blair urging the Prime Minister's resignation to end the uncertainty over his succession. The Government Chief Whip, Jacqui Smith, told Watson that evening that he must either withdraw his signature to the letter, or resign his post. On 6 September 2006, he resigned his ministerial position and released a further statement calling on Tony Blair to resign:

“

It is with the greatest sadness that I have to say that I no longer believe that your remaining in office is in the interest of either the party or the country … How and why this situation has arisen no longer matters. I share the view of the overwhelming majority of the party and the country that the only way the party and the government can renew itself in office is urgently to renew its leadership.

”

Tony Blair was quoted by the BBC as saying that the statement and letter from Watson was "disloyal, discourteous and wrong" and that he would be seeing Watson later in the day. He said that he had planned to dismiss Watson from Government for having signed the letter urging him to resign. Within days of the incident suggestions appeared that Watson had been to Chancellor Gordon Brown's residence in Scotland only the day before the memo was sent to Tony Blair. Watson claimed he was dropping off a present for Brown's new baby Fraser and that neither the issue of the note, nor "any politics" were discussed.^{[citation needed]}

As Watson recounted on his weblog, his reception at the Labour Party Conference a few weeks after his resignation got a mixed reaction from Labour Party colleagues. Some sought him out to congratulate him, whilst others sought him out to be sarcastic or to be abusive. One such encounter was with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who asked Watson, whilst he was waiting to be interviewed by Channel 4 News, if he was "going to resign again?"

Watson's actions, by his own admission on his weblog and elsewhere, angered many of his colleagues within the Labour Party, but also pleased many. He returned to government following Brown's appointment as Prime Minister in June 2007, in apparent contravention of a promise allegedly made in 2006 never to do so.^{[citation needed]}

Expenses scandal

Main article: United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal

On 10 May 2009 it was revealed that since being re-elected as MP in 2005, Watson claimed the maximum £4,800 allowance for food in a single year. From 2005-2009, Watson and Iain Wright claimed over £100,000 on the apartment they share. Watson responded that a "pizza wheel" that appeared on a Marks & Spencer receipt he submitted was given as a free gift after he spent £150 at the store. He added:

All claims were made under the rules set out by the House of Commons authorities. I fully understand why the public expects the system to be reformed. I voted for this last week and only hope that reforms can go even further as quickly as possible.

Opposition to the Digital Economy Act

Tom Watson led a number of MPs in speaking out firmly against the Digital Economy Act 2010, as the bill was being passed through Parliament in April 2010 during the 'wash-up' period before the election. He took part in a protest against the bill outside Parliament on 24 March 2010.

Glenn Beck

Watson has been critical of conservative Fox News host Glenn Beck, saying that Beck's "type of journalism is dangerous and can have wide-ranging negative effects on society. The kind of material broadcast by Glenn Beck is not unique; a number of other 'shock jocks' operate in the States. However, none has displayed intolerance on such a frequent and irresponsible scale as Glenn Beck. It is vital that that kind of 'news' is not made or broadcast in the UK. However, the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corp means that there is an increased threat of its becoming a reality."

In Opposition

Watson played a significant role in the News International phone hacking scandal by helping to bring the series of events at the News of the World into the open. As a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, he questioned Rupert and James Murdoch, along with former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, in a Committee session on 19 July 2011. After the subsequent re-questioning of James Murdoch on 10 November 2011, Tom Watson received widespread coverage for his likening of Murdoch to a mafia boss.

In August 2010, Watson was guest editor of the Labour Uncut website.

In October 2011, Watson was promoted to become Deputy Chair of the Labour Party, to work with Jon Trickett and Michael Dugher in the Shadow Cabinet Office, running Labour's elections and campaigns.

Leveson Inquiry leak

On 27 November 2011, Watson's website published Alastair Campbell's evidence that was due to be presented to the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics during the following week. After this act was highlighted on the Guido Fawkes blog, together with references to the source material, the page was withdrawn. Paul Staines, editor of Guido Fawkes, was summonsed, on the same day that this appeared, to appear in front of the enquiry. It appeared that Watson was not going to be summonsed to appear as the Leveson Enquiry had deemed that he copied it from the Guido Fawkes blog, a version that had been redacted. No details are to hand to verify the dates and times of his publication, nor how it appeared to be unredacted. The summons against Staines was withdrawn on 30 November 2011, the day before he was due to give evidence.

Sun Journalist Controversy

On 13 February 2012 Tom Watson proposed to the twitter community that The Sun needed a twitter hashtag for an article relating to the ongoing police enquiries into corruption, "The Sun's "poor us" article needs a hashtag: #sunarrests"

A Sun journalist, Jacqui Swift (@jacswift), responded within 40 minutes. It has taken the twitter world by storm and caused new controversy for The Sun. Her proposal was subsequently deleted by her but can be seen in full at the link below, suggested that "@tom_watson you are a fat wanker is a better hashtag".

External links

• Official blog
• Tom Watson on Twitter
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Tom Watson MP on the Open Rights Group wiki
• Full text of resignation letter, BBC News Online, 6 September 2006
• The Sun pays damages to Labour MP Tom Watson, James Robinson, The Guardian, 28 September 2009
• Urgent question on BSkyB, Parliament.uk, 1 July 2011
• Walker, Jonathon (2011-07-08). "The Tom Watson Story: The man who took on Rupert Murdoch and won". Birmingham Post. http://blogs.birminghampost.net/news/2011/07/the-tom-watson-story-the-man-w.html. Retrieved 8 July 2011. 

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Snape	Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East 2001-present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Gillian Merron	Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office 2008-2009	Succeeded by Shriti Vadera
Party political offices
Preceded by Stephen Timms	Deputy Chair of the Labour Party 2011-present	Incumbent