John Watts
Right-wing Tory MP who drove the privatisation of BR and crossed paths with ‘Swampy’
JOHN WATTS, who has died aged 69, was a robustly Rightwing Tory who was MP for Slough for 14 years, the last three of them as John Major’s minister of state for transport. Tough, astute and popular in the House, Watts arrived at Westminster having made his name as a costcutting leader of Hillingdon council. When eventually Labour regained control, he lamented that it was difficult to criticise them because they were “non-loony”.
The burly Watts – who bore a superficial resemblance to Nye Bevan – was a leading parliamentary opponent of abortion, reckoning the 1967 Act had “led to the death of 2.5 million children”. He opposed the ordination of divorced men, and voted against the Thatcher government’s plans – eventually dropped – for dog registration and identity cards for football supporters. But he supported the poll tax, having repeatedly criticised the system of council finance that it replaced.
Unlike some colleagues, Watts did not machinate for a ministerial job. But he impressed as chairman of the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee, and when the time came Major brought him into the middle ranks of his government.
As deputy first to Brian Mawhinney and later to Sir George Young, much of Watts’s work concerned making a reality of rail privatisation. Major’s target was to have the whole of BR privatised before the 1997 election, and – with the diplomatic though persistent Young replacing the abrasive Mawhinney – the deadline was met. Watts was on hand for the launch of the Great Western franchise in February 1996, but also had to field protests over the closure of the former British Rail carriage works at York, which did not long survive privatisation.
Watts was also responsible for buses, and for aspects of the roads programme which under Major was cut back heavily, partly through environmental concerns but also because the Department of Transport had a long wish-list of projects for which funding would never be available. By-passes for which there was a strategic need survived the cull and Watts opened his share – but he also crossed swords with the environmental activist “Swampy”.
John Arthur Watts was born at Hillingdon, Middlesex, on April 19 1947. His parents, Arthur Watts, a piano tuner, and the former Ivy Woods, a shop assistant, were originally Labour supporters.
From Bishopshalt grammar school, Hillingdon, he went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Having joined the party at 16, he chaired the university Conservative Association in 1968. On graduating he trained and qualified as a chartered accountant, and set up his own practice. Until his election to Parliament, he was an active member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
In 1973 Watts became chairman of Uxbridge Conservatives, and a Hillingdon councillor. Three years later he became Tory group leader, then after defeating Labour in the 1978 borough elections, leader of the council.
The impact Watts made as he slashed council spending struck a chord with the newly elected Thatcherites at Westminster. He reversed Labour policies and cancelled spending commitments, most controversially ordering the closure of an open-air swimming pool to save money.
For the 1983 general election Watts was selected to fight Slough. The seat was held by the prominent Labour Left-winger Joan Lestor, and boundary changes had taken out Conservative Eton and added two council estates.
Nevertheless, with Labour’s vote crumbling nationally, Watts ousted Miss Lestor by 3,106 votes. He handed over the leadership of Hillingdon council to Terry Dicks, who would later also make a mark as an MP.
At Westminster Watts threw his weight behind Mrs Thatcher, stressing the need for lower taxes and avoiding a return to “voodoo high expenditure policies”. He tried to amend local government legislation to prevent councils forcing contractors to hire ethnic minority workers.
Before long Mrs Thatcher’s disciple Ian Gow, who was housing minister, appointed Watts his PPS. He moved with Gow to the Treasury in September 1985, but 10 weeks later Gow resigned over the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Norman Tebbit, the party chairman, endorsed Watts by appointing him chief financial officer at Central Office.
Watts joined the Treasury and Civil Service Committee in 1986, becoming its chairman in 1992 after holding his seat by just 514 votes. Two years later, Major appointed him a minister.
With the 1997 election nearing, further boundary changes made Slough unwinnable (Labour would take it with a majority of more than 13,000). Watts instead was selected for Reading East, inheriting a 14,555 majority from the retiring Dr Gerry Vaughan. He fought the seat hard, but with the strong anti-Conservative swing Labour’s Jane Griffiths took it by 3,795 votes.
Watts could have hoped for a comeback as the Tories regrouped, but that October he suffered a serious brain haemorrhage, from which he made only a partial recovery. In 2002, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The family moved in 1999 to Keeston in Pembrokeshire, where he became active in the Church In Wales, sang in the Roch Choir, was treasurer of Milford Arts Club, took motorised chair walks, and spent valuable time with his granddaughter Celeste.
John Watts married Susan Swan in 1974; she survives him with their son and three daughters, all of whom live in Wales.