Tom Watson destroyed my life. Don’t make him a peer

Labour’s former deputy leader has set back the cause of genuine victims of child sexual abuse

In October 2012, Tom Watson stood up in the House of Commons and set in motion a chain of events that went on to ruin my life, inflict untold misery on others and damage the chances of genuine victims of historical child sexual abuse achieving justice. The suggestion that, eight years later, he could now be elevated to the House of Lords is grotesque, a stain even on a party as morally warped as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

Those of us caught up in the deranged claims about a Westminster paedophile ring have known all along that these allegations were false. They were built on the back of testimony by the then-anonymous source “Nick”, later exposed as Carl Beech, a criminal liar, fraudster and perverter of the course of justice with a history of paedophilia who was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year.

It was Watson who worked hardest to amplify the testimony of Nick, meeting him, raising his allegations in the Commons and helping to pressure the police into pursuing the claims. Along the way, he behaved with shocking callousness, parroting Beech in the Commons as he described Lord Brittan as being as “close to evil as any human being could get”, just days after the former home secretary’s death.

Now, after six years and an estimated £150 million, we have the final official confirmation that, as the report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) puts it: “There is no evidence to support the most sensational of the various allegations of child sexual abuse made over recent years that there has been a powerful paedophile network operating within Westminster.”

If there were any illicit cooperation, it was between the self-appointed anti-abuse crusader Watson and the Metropolitan Police. That senior police have not paid the penalty for their complicity in this miscarriage is bad enough. That Watson is reportedly among those on Corbyn’s Dissolution Honours List is even worse.

I have already made my feelings on this known through the official channels. Several weeks ago, I wrote to Lord Bew, chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which vets appointments to the upper house, to express my horror at such a prospect. Among the things I asked him to consider was the prospect of Watson facing police action. It is my firm conviction that, in light of the way in which he acted, he deserves to be investigated for the offence of committing misconduct in public office.

To be arrested, charged and prosecuted is no less than he deserves after the misery he inflicted on myself and others such as the late Field Marshal Lord Bramall, whose twilight years were blighted by the lies of Beech and the heavy-handed behaviour of the police, and Lord Brittan, who went to his grave with cooked-up allegations hanging over him. The idea of Watson sitting on the same red benches once graced by these men adds insult to injury.

It is worth noting, in light of the row over a peerage for the former Speaker, John Bercow, that there is no precedent for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party to bring with it automatic elevation. Watson would be the first former deputy leader in his party’s history to be ennobled without having served in a senior cabinet position. It appears to me that his main qualification is that he refrained from criticising Corbyn ahead of the election, quite possibly on the tacit understanding that taking ermine would be his reward.

However, the most powerful case against making him Lord Watson is the damage he has done to the cause of genuine victims. Encouraging people who have suffered from historical child sexual abuse to come forward is desperately important and the thought of predatory paedophiles getting away with their crimes is appalling. Yet, by dragging the authorities into such disrepute, Watson has made it less likely that those wavering over whether to approach the police will do so. I also dread to think what good could have been done with the enormous resources that were wasted on the absurd goose chase he started.

Tom Watson destroyed my life, my reputation and my livelihood. But if he isn’t denied a peerage on my behalf, then I hope he will be on behalf of all the victims so badly let down.