Tom Watson plans Labour offshoot to halt defections
TOM WATSON will tomorrow warn Jeremy Corbyn that Labour faces further defections as he seeks to form his own grouping of “social democrat” MPS within the party.
The Labour deputy leader will have a face-to-face meeting with Mr Corbyn amid fears that more Labour MPS could defect to the Independent Group. He will also discuss plans to build his own policy platform within Labour.
Mr Watson’s group will have as many as 50 Labour MPS and is also considering plans for its own policies, spokesmen and whipping arrangements.
The meeting tomorrow represents the first between the two men in the wake of the defection of eight Labour MPS to the Independent Group.
It comes as Tony Blair, the former Labour leader, praised Mr Watson for his “great leadership”.
Mr Blair’s comments were all the more surprising as Mr Watson led a “curry house conspiracy” against him during his premiership in a bid to install Gordon Brown in his place.
Mr Blair said he had a “great deal of sympathy” for the “courageous” breakaway group of MPS who quit Labour two weeks ago. However, he insisted he planned to stay in the Labour Party.
He said the combination of “hard- Left” Labour and a “hard Brexit” Conservative Party had created a “fertile” political territory in the centre.
Mr Blair said he was “deeply concerned” about Labour’s direction and policy under Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, he added: “I’m staying in the Labour Party. I’ve been in the Labour Party for over 40 years, I led it for 13 years, I was the longest-serving Labour prime minister, I’m deeply attached to the Labour Party. But do I sympathise with what they have done? Yes, I do. I think they’re courageous in having done it.”