Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, who this evening is the subject of a #ResignWatson ‘Twitter storm’, gave an interview to the Observer, published today, in which he attacks the party, its electability and its disciplinary processes.
In the days before the interview appeared, Watson issued the party with a demand for an improved slot for his speech at next month’s annual conference. Watson’s speech is scheduled for the conference Monday, considered a lesser slot than the following day, which he appears to feel is part of an attempt to undermine him.
Watson threatened to step up his criticism of Corbyn’s positions in the media if his demand was not met. It was not met.
He had raised the issue of his conference speech on social media on Friday, attempting to make light of it:
Tom Watson was contacted for comment.
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I just wonder if that’s so he can have the best possible platform to make their big announcement that he and X RWs are leaving Labour cos of AS etc etc and starting up their new RW neolib ooops I mean ,,,,, Centrist party ?
What a horrible, untrustworthy man. We knew that anyway but still it’s depressing how low some of these careerists are prepared to go.
You are so right!
Watson is a sociopath…… full stop.
Is he still the deputy leader? 3 years no activism?
I thought he was dead
He likes to lay low and hope people forget about him so he keeps his job, money and privilege and then pops up once in a while to have a quick stab in whoever the leader is at the time’s back.
OK! Watson’s time is well & truly up!
Has he put his CV online?
Backstabbing, narcissistic, selfseeking wanbabe
seeks new role!
Imagine swapping the deputy leadership of the next government for ignominious dismissal and a terabyte’s worth of enemies – shit, imagine the cost of the plastic surgery & the new identity ffs 🙂
There’s nothing left of Watson but a realpolitik gimp mask; it’s now one tawdry new low after another.
Can you imagine a small-majority Labour government trying to implement its manifesto with Watson and his ilk clogging up the plumbing?
It appears that many of the party membership have little if any confidence in Tom Watson as Deputy Leader. For the good of OUR party, he must go now. #ResignWatson.
Watson’s speech will be met with silence by the vast majority in the hall. Those who stand up and applaud will have been primed by Progress.
Watson is in a self-created vortex of eternal shamelessness.
Nothing but a charlatan.
He still thinks the principles of democracy are flexible – as practised by Blair, Mandelson, Campbell et al – to be gambled with, negotiated away, bought, sold, gifted, blackmailed and spun behind closed doors in smoke-filled rooms.
Pushing aboard and staying on the gravy train is everything to those fuckers.
I couldn’t have put it better David.
Corbyn should have seen all this coming and instead of waiting for it to he should have got rid of the likes of Watson, Leslie, Streeting, Gapes etc etc in his first year in the job. This will hurt the left – there is no doubt – how much remains to be seen!
Absolutely.
When all’s said & done, a fair bit of the flak Corbyn’s copping for was brought on himself by his prior inaction. Instead of actually banishing the twunts altogether, or at least exiling them to the (way)back benches, he promoted them – even after jones challenged Corbyn’s leadership he was given a prominent in the shadow cabinet….Look how well that turned out!?
Keeping his enemies closer has only done Corbyn harm. It’s time to start kicking arses and stamping authority. He can no longer be seen to be all things to all people because he just isn’t;
There’s ‘us’ and there’s ‘them’ , and Corbyn needs to show beyond doubt that if you’re one of ‘them’ then you can get tae fook.
sever all contact with Watson and remove the whip and expel
It can be the membership that help this situation. We are empowered to within our area LP’s and at Liverpool with Conference delegates. The constituency selection process motion does this.
COMRADES! this is dumb! we are being divided and overruled – lets say enough is enough of intra-labour infighting. I was appalled and repelled by Tom Watson’s op ed too- but a twitter storm just amplifies the factional divide, gives the MSM more squabbling to trumpet about. David Rosenberg puts it well today on the Jewish Voice for Labour website:
“So my plea to Jeremy and his supporters for how we go forward from here, is quite simple: Get back to discussing and promoting Labour’s core issues over which it is at war with the Tories, in public meetings and open air rallies around the country, and, in the meantime, start to meet with those Jews who are sincere and not playing power games or using diversionary tactics that seem designed only to help Theresa May and Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Forgive my millimetre-deep knowledge – but isn’t the leader’s power over MPs pretty much limited to cabinet/shadow appointments – and aren’t those with experience tainted by Blair?
Whether or not that’s the case I’m sure some of you know the qualities of candidates for promotion far better than an old fart who can barely remember his passwords – so are there drop-in replacements ready to fill the shoes of those we want to dump?
I have a favourite or two but no idea of their possible ministerial aptitudes.
I hope the party already knows which newer MPs are capable of mastering a ministerial brief, ideally at first hearing – if not we should be constantly helping and assessing them since we don’t know how much time we have left.
“Give me a bettter slot or I shall skweem and skweem and skweem.”
Violet Elizabeth Watson.
I’m ashamed, I voted for you Tom Watson, how well you hid your political bent, a man of the right with no morals whatsoever!
You are an outright first class, “et tu BRUTE”!
Watson was democratically elected as Deputy Leader by the Labour Party members and affiliates, so unfortunately, until there is another vote by the membership, I don’t think there is any way to remove him.