Tom Watson (politician)

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Tom Watson 2017

Thomas Anthony Watson (born January 8, 1967 in Sheffield ) is a British politician and was Deputy Leader of the Labor Party from 2015 to 2019 . From 2001 to 2019 he represented West Bromwich East in the British Parliament . He became famous in 2003 as the first UK MP with his own blog .

education and profession

Watson graduated from the University of Hull . He was involved in the student body of his university and was elected President in 1992. From 1992 to 1993 he was also the chairman of the National Organization of Labor Students , a national student organization affiliated with the Labor Party. After graduating, he worked in marketing. He supported his party's campaign for the 1997 British general election , in which the Labor Party clearly defeated the ruling Conservative Party .

Political career

Watson was elected to the British Parliament in 2001 in the West Bromwich East constituency to succeed his party comrade Peter Snape . He initially worked on the Home Affairs Select Committee and became Parliamentary Private Secretary at Paymaster General in 2003. He became the first UK MEP to blog on his official website in 2003. He attracted public attention with a blog entry that parodied the efforts of politicians to get young people excited about politics. His blog won the 2004 New Media Award of the newspaper New Statesman . He became Assistant Whip in the Blair Administration in 2004 , before joining the Department of Defense in May 2006 as Undersecretary and Minister for Veterans.

On September 5, 2006, the British press reported that Watson had signed a letter calling on incumbent Prime Minister Tony Blair to resign. In an interview, the parliamentary executive secretary of the government, Jacqui Smith , gave Watson the choice of withdrawing the signature or resigning from his post. A day later, Watson announced his resignation.

After Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, took office in June 2007, Watson returned to government. From January 2008 he was Minister for Digitization and Public Administration in the Cabinet Office . On June 5, 2009, Watson resigned as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Previously, Watson's expense reports were also criticized in the wake of a major affair over expense reports from parliamentarians.

On September 12, 2015, Watson was elected Labor Party Deputy Leader. In Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet , Watson was initially shadow minister for the Cabinett Office, and has been shadow minister for culture, media and sport in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet since October 7, 2016. After the Brexit referendum and the subsequent leadership crisis in the Labor Party, Tom Watson tried to persuade Jeremy Corbyn to resign, but he was finally able to assert himself clearly in a new election for the party chairmanship. His relationship with Corbyn is considered to be not free of tension.

On April 21, 2019, Watson publicly spoke out in favor of holding a second referendum on leaving the EU. The Labor Party must take this up as an election promise to counter the Brexit Party founded by Nigel Farage .

On November 6, 2019, Watson announced that he would not run again in the upcoming general election on December 12 and that he would also resign from his post as vice chairman of the party on that date. While he had initially stated that his reasons for resigning were personal and not political, he subsequently specified this by referring to a climate of brutality and hostility that now prevails in his party. His mandate fell to Nicola Richards of the Conservatives .

Private

Watson lives in the Black Country . He is married and has a son.

Works

  • Votes for All: Compulsory Participation in Elections (Fabian Policy Report). Fabian Society, 2000. ISBN 0-7163-3050-4 (with Mark Tami)

swell

  1. ↑ Blog entry "Teens" with reactions from readers
  2. ^ Minister joins Blair exit demands. BBC News , September 5, 2006, accessed October 12, 2016 .
  3. ^ Andrew Porter: MPs' expenses: Tom Watson to resign from Government. In: The Telegraph (online). June 2, 2009, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  4. ^ Mason, Rowena: Tom Watson elected Labor party deputy leader. The Guardian , September 12, 2015, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  5. ^ Labor's new shadow cabinet in full. BBC News , October 7, 2016, accessed December 12, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Peter Walker, Anushka Asthana: Labor leadership: Tom Watson calls on MPs to step back from brink. In: The Guardian (online). July 2, 2016, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Peter Walker: Jeremy Corbyn doesn't consult me ​​on strategy decisions, says Watson. In: The Guardian (online). January 4, 2017, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  8. ^ Rajeev Syal, Peter Walker: Corbyn and team criticized for briefing against Watson over Momentum row. In: The Guardian (online). March 20, 2017, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Brexit: Labor must back another referendum - Tom Watson. BBC News, April 21, 2019, accessed April 21, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Tom Watson: Labor deputy leader stands down as MP. The Independent, November 6, 2019, accessed December 17, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Tom Watson says he stood down as an MP over Labor “brutality”. BBC News, December 28, 2019, accessed the same day.
  12. ↑ General election 2019: Conservatives win West Bromwich East. BBC News, December 13, 2019, accessed December 28, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Tom Watson  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Watson, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watson, Thomas Anthony (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Labor Party politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield