Inquiry into Nick fiasco delayed ‘to help Watson get his peerage’
Select committee looking into Operation Midland will not take place until Easter at earliest
A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into Operation Midland that threatens to severely embarrass Tom Watson has been delayed to avoid damaging his chances of a peerage, it was claimed last night.
The home affairs select committee announced the inquiry last October but MPS are still to agree on what precisely to investigate. Hearings may not take place before Easter and probably some months after that, well-placed sources told The Daily Telegraph.
The inquiry into the police handling of false claims of a Westminster paedophile ring and the failure of the police watchdog to discipline officers would have dragged in Mr Watson, the former Labour deputy leader.
Sources claim Tories on the committee want to call Mr Watson while Labour MPS, including Yvette Cooper, its chairman, are trying to block that.
A well-placed source said: “Clearly they want to delay any further damaging stuff about Tom Watson while the peerage is still being considered. If he can get the peerage, he is invulnerable.”
Yvette Cooper said yesterday: “This is utter garbage. I chair the home affairs select committee to do rigorous and effective cross-party reports and inquiries not to protect or pursue anyone for party political purposes. That’s how I’ve always chaired the committee, it’s what we’ve always done.
“The previous home affairs select committee had five incomplete inquiries when the general election was called in December, including a newly launched inquiry into police complaints. The new committee will take a view on what we do with each one in the normal way but our immediate and urgent priority is to take evidence on the Home Office preparations for and response to coronavirus. That is what people would expect us to be doing now.”
Mr Watson has been repeatedly criticised for his role in beginning a “witch hunt” that included encouraging Carl Beech, a fantasist codenamed Nick, to take his false claims of sexual abuse to police, prompting Operation Midland.
Yesterday, he was accused by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in its official report of sharing some blame for the catastrophic inquiry that wrongly led to the homes of Field Marshal Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Harvey Proctor being raided by the Metropolitan Police.
Mr Watson stepped down as an MP at the last election but, it is understood, has been recommended for a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader.
The source claims the home affairs committee is now dragging its feet on its Operation Midland inquiry which would give time for Mr Watson to be awarded his peerage. A second source accepted the hearings had taken many months to arrange but insisted that was not connected to Mr Watson’s peerage.
“It is very sensitive,” said the source, “It is taking a bit longer because MPS cannot agree a consensus on the terms of reference of the inquiry.”
The source added: “The inquiry was set up in October but there has been an election since then and the new committee has only just formed.
“Realistically, it won’t start taking evidence until after Easter and that is the best case scenario.”
Mr Watson has always insisted that all he did was meet Beech once and tell him to take his claims to Scotland Yard. But he remained in contact with Beech, now serving an 18-year jail term, and even quoted him when describing Lord Brittan as “evil” in a withering newspaper column just days after the former home secretary’s death.
Scotland Yard paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages to the widow of Lord Brittan, to Mr Proctor, a former Tory MP, and to Lord Bramall, a former head of the Army.