Johnson urges Lords to block Watson’s peerage after ‘witch hunt’
THE Lords vetting committee should rethink plans to give Tom Watson a peerage over his catastrophic claim of a Westminster paedophile ring, Boris Johnson suggested last night.
The Prime Minister’s intervention over Mr Watson’s role in stoking a “witch hunt” against senior politicians and military figures, including the late Lord Brittan and Field Marshal Lord
Bramall, will heap pressure on authorities to turn down the former Labour deputy leader for a peerage.
In a statement, friends of Lady Brittan said: “Tom Watson exploited his political platform to give credibility to unfounded smears about innocent people when he was in the House of Commons. This should raise serious questions about how he might use his position in the House of Lords.”
Mr Johnson’s official spokesman took the highly unusual step of commenting on plans by an opposition party for a political appointment to the House of Lords.
Asked if Mr Watson should get a peerage in the wake of a report that found no evidence of a Westminster paedophile ring, a No10 spokesman said: “It is not a matter for us but I am sure the House of Lords appointments commission will be considering all the most up-to-date and relevant information.”
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse concluded after a fiveyear investigation that “there was no evidence of any kind of organised ‘Westminster paedophile network’ in which persons of prominence conspired to pass children amongst themselves for the purpose of sexual abuse”.
Mr Watson had stood up in Parliament in 2012 demanding an investigation into a paedophile ring and later encouraged Carl Beech, a fantasist subsequently convicted of being a paedophile, to go to the police. Beech falsely claimed he was abused by a murderous gang that included Sir Edward Heath, as well as the heads of MI5 and MI6.
Police launched a £5million operation and raided the homes of Lord Brittan,
Lord Bramall and the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor.
Writing in today’s Telegraph, Mr Proctor said Mr Watson should be deprived of a peerage because “of the damage he has done to the cause of genuine victims”.
Lincoln Seligman, Sir Edward’s godson, said a peerage “would be a reward not just for failure but for self-serving political mischief-making.”